State of Affairs: The Homeless
Last edited Sun Mar 13, 2016, 02:21 PM - Edit history (2)
I'm sorry for the long thread but I thought this may interest y'all.
Now I may not be giving benefit of the doubt to our lawmakers and council-members state-wide but, we have an on-going problem in California. Governor Brown set a precedent of deciding that our budget was top-priority and as a result, there was a decreasing sense of urgency in addressing poverty and issues pertaining to low-income families. Governor Brown stated in the past that everyone was going to fill the effects in the way of short term cuts for long term success. This type of austerity only drives other issues such as crime, gentrification, poverty, etc. Even though many democrats brag about California and their progress, we must not lose sight of the issues that bring socioeconomic issues.
I understand that social issues are important, however I feel many of our politicians here in California have forgotten the key tenets of economic justice. Taxing the rich by a couple of more dollars isn't enough, we must devote our resources to providing shelter to the homeless, fighting for a state-wide single-payer healthcare system, decreasing incentives for building charter schools while increasing public education costs (this includes free tuition for UC/CSU schools), reforming our state criminal justice system, and dare I say creating at least a public option on life/house/car insurance.
Now you may ask, what this has to do with the homeless? These ideas will not only provide our most vulnerable with new-found opportunities but this gives people a chance, it gives children in East Oakland, Compton, Central and East Stockton, Oak Park, Long Beach, and any other disadvantaged neighbourhood to accomplish the dream of overcoming. Families who've been in despair for much of their lives will more than likely avoid the confinements of defunded schooling-impoverished streets-parents working longer hours for lower wages-prison. You know we're morally bankrupt when our voiceless citizens are imprisoned over, say a drug charge, when CEOs and banksters are freely roaming the streets of LA or SF when a good portion of those folks wrecked our economy in one way or another.
My intuition is that the content here are things that we need to really think about and the solutions above are things we need to fight for to really be known as a true progressive state who puts people power over corporate power.
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