I have already solved most of the world’s problems back in 1992 with the publication of New Solutions. What a nice world we would be living in today, if only anyone had paid attention back then ~ a new Golden Age . . .
One of the simplest and most obvious of my suggestions was to deal with the problem of all the homeless and hungry people of the world ~ just house them and feed them ! People who work hard to make their living may be unwilling just to provide a literal free lunch (plus breakfast and dinner) to people who are too drunk, lazy, or shiftless to take care of themselves, but, as I have pointed out too many times to bother to count, the simple expedient of feeding and housing the homeless and hungry with a network of Free Farms, world-wide, would easily be the cheapest way of dealing with the poor, who, as Jesus Christ reminds us, will be with us always (Matthew 26:11). The only cheaper solution, if not quite as humane, is simply to euthanize the entire population of poor and hungry. I think I suggested someplace, in the spirit of Jonathan Swift, that a simple policy of euthanizing the bottom 5% of the world’s poorest every year would not only solve the problem in a hurry, but it would galvanize the world’s economy like nothing ever seen before.
The problem with poverty is that the poor of the world do not just sit quietly, waiting to die. [Nor can the Israelis understand, I just have to add, why the stubborn Palestinians refuse to just lay down and die instead of seeking any other alternative.] The best of the poor are simply beggars, whom we should be able to tolerate with a reasonably good grace, but most of the others usually engage in fraud, theft, murder, mayhem, gambling, prostitution, dealing drugs, or fomenting revolution. Combatting all of these problems costs enormous sums to governments all over the world. If we simply recognize that there will always be a certain number of hungry and homeless, the easiest and cheapest solution is just to feed them, and let them live out their lives in peace. They are not all ne’er-do-wells ~ they may be sick, lame, un-wed mothers, orphans, elderly, disabled veterans, simple-minded, adle-brained, unsuccessful artists or musicians, or otherwise just unable to cope with the effort of life, and without families or friends to take them in and care for them.
If we provide free housing and free meals for these people, I do not expect any great rush of persons eager to retire from the world to live in peace and comfort ~ the Free Farms would be very simple, just dormitories and cafeterias. Anyone who could manage a life back in the world (and employment agencies would always look for workers who wanted to do so) would gladly trade one’s free life for a mortgage, car payments, and the cost of educating one’s children. If one couldn’t make a go of it, one’s bed at the free farm would always be there to fall back on. Come to think of it, a fair number of people might prefer the free farm in any case ! Let them ~ the rest of the world will run more smoothly if they are allowed to live their lives how they wish.
Of course I am reacting to the Supreme Court’s recent happy idea of simply criminalizing homeless people, and Governor Newsom’s eager follow-up of an executive order to “round up the usual suspects” in California. What idiocy ! Will someone please compare the cost of maintaining free farms with the cost of dealing with all of the knock-on consequences of homeless and hungry people running around looking for mischief ?
Most of the wars of the world would simply peter out if all the oppressed people had somewhere to go where they could simply lay down their tired bones, take off their worn out shoes, and eat a simple meal in peace and fellowship with others who likewise have nowhere else to go.
Providing direct services of food and housing to the indigent would be incomparably cheaper than the enormous cost of funding endless welfare payments and cash benefits of all kinds, but one wouldn’t have to touch those benefits. Anyone who would rather take the money so they could live in a cheap apartment in the city instead of living in a free farm community would be welcome to do so, but the more people who would opt for the free farm the more money would be saved.
People who have run out of other options until they are reduced to living out of their car or a shopping cart or under a bridge shouldn’t be living alone, anyway. Solitude is one of the chief causes of mental and emotional distress, so housing in a community of people would promote a better lifestyle with better chances of returning to being another happy brick in the wall. And life would be so much better for the rest of us.
