#183 Who Should Care for the Homeless

The Christian Economist | Dave Arnott

“Supply causes demand” was the summary statement by the French economist Jean Baptiste Say. The Biden administration has supplied more than $500 million to alleviate homelessness, and demand for it went up 11%. The allotment will be quickly consumed by the Homeless Industrial Complex, who will be back at the Government feeding trough for more, faster than you can say “Dwight Eisenhower.” Why “Dwight Eisenhower?” He invented the term Military Industrial Complex, from which the term Homeless Industrial Complex gets its name. The concept of the Homeless Industrial Complex is real. As far as I can tell, the term was first used by Joel John Roberts, who authored the cheeky-titled book How to Increase Homelessness in 2004. It sprang up to monetize homeless "services" nationally and their continued funding depends on sustaining the homeless population. They are not so much interested in solutions -- there's too much money in the problem. Nothing About Supply and Demand The Wall Street Journal is trying to blame the homeless problem on economics, “This year’s surge reflects a host of pressures around the U.S. such as rising housing costs, and lack of affordable rental units.” Oh, that’s why crackheads consume cocaine, opioids, and Mogen David by the gallon? Homelessness is the result, not the cause. Homelessness is largely caused by drug addiction and mental illness. It’s not an economic problem, it’s a moral violation for the homeless who make choices to fry their brains, and for the self-interested governmental bureaucrats who make a pretty nice living in the Homeless Industrial Complex that maintains the street carnival. Somewhere around 90% of homeless people have drug and alcohol addictions, and some degree of mental illness. In their book Extreme Leadership former Navy Seals Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, state the rather obvious, “You get the behavior you tolerate.” New York City has something called “A legal right to shelter,” which has caused its homeless population to explode. “The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, a federal agency, also blamed growing homeless counts on housing costs and shortages.” The government is wrong again. Look, homelessness is NOT an economic problem. We can do ZERO to address the homeless problem until we stop claiming an association between homelessness and lack of affordable housing. They are unrelated. Homelessness has nothing to do with the availability of affordable housing. When shelter is supplied for many homeless people, they turn it down. Many homeless people are homeless because they don’t want to follow the rules that would be required to live in a house. If you’re thinking “that’s kinda crazy,” you would be correct. As I’ve stated, the majority of the homeless population have some kind of drug or alcohol dependence or mental illness. Noting that the unemployment rate is at 3.6%, well below what economists call the natural rate of 5%, we should notice that jobs are plentiful in this country for anyone who shows up on time and isn't stoned. The Capitalist Good Samaritan Finding a man injured on the road, the Good Samaritan, as described in Luke chapter 10 uses his own oil, wine, and bandages. He puts the man on his own donkey and pays the innkeeper with his own denarii. Socialists read the story to say: finding the man injured on the road, the Samaritan rushed into town and rounded up some Roman soldiers who went door-to-door, forcefully extracting taxes to buy public oil, wine, and bandages. They bought public donkeys and public inns. That’s not how Jesus told the story, and it’s not how we are commanded to care for the homeless. There is no room in the Good Samaritan story for the government. Defined by What They’re NOT Notice the title “homeless.” Interesting that these folks are identified by what they don’t have, instead of what they do have. Maybe I should start referring to the students in my class at Dal...