
Mike Lallemand
6.3K posts

Mike Lallemand
@GroundLvlFall
Trauma and General Surgeon via @VUMCTrauma. likes Sugar Free Red Bull and resuscitation. Dislikes: bleeding



There are two separate list prices to end the "homeless" problem in America. One is the price if you are willing to call bums, tramps, and hobos what they are — bums, tramps, and hobos. That price is a lot less than $20 billion. The other is the price if you insist on calling bums "homeless". That price is infinity dollars. Because you can't solve a problem, no matter how much money you spend, until you understand what they problem is. If you call a guy "homeless", that means you think the problem is that he doesn't have a home. But the problem isn't THAT he doesn't have a home, it's WHY he doesn't have a home. He doesn't have a home because he is incapable of the basic life tasks you have to do so that you have one. So buying him a place to lay his head won't fix anything. It won't make him less addicted to heroin. Or less schizophrenic. Or less antisocial and unable to sustain the basic human relationships necessary to have a job or an income. The problem isn't that they don't have things. So you can't fix them by giving them things. It's that they can't do things. So what you have to do is stop giving them things so they have to fix themselves. And if they can't, you physically remove them from society so they can't bother functional people. And if you're not adult enough to be willing to do that, because you can't stand looking mean, then you're not adult enough to be trusted with $20 billion to "fix homelessness".
















If you push these efforts too far - shorten the schooling, shorten residency, get rid of the standardized tests, eliminate this and that… Eventually, there is a point at which people will come to believe your job isn’t that special, and could be done by anyone.














