Part of the California homeless crises is a classic economic conundrum. When you put in place programs that assist the needy, you also create an economic demand for more needy people. The better the programs, the greater the demand. The greater the “need”. This is among the reasons the study of economics was called the “Dismal Science” for years. While California over the years has tried desperately to do the right thing about its homeless problem, and has put in place an enormously expensive social system of such programs, it has not yet found the answer.
However, as the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan pointed out many years ago, these social “assistance” programs more often than not have only made the problems worse. They built instant slums, not homes. They gave checks, not jobs. They built a great bureaucracy, just not a successful one, It was almost all, in essence, counterproductive. The more counterproductive, the greater the failure, the more California doubled down. They really wanted, and I think they still want to do the right thing.
The net effect of all of the programs nationwide was to wreck poor and particularly poor Black families and neighborhoods. Prior to the “Great Society” programs of LBJ there were more traditional Black families as a percentage than white families. There were far more white babies born out of wedlock than Black babies as a yearly percentage. These social programs, intending good, but doing harm, reversed those percentages and were a major factor in the creation of single parent, female, Black families according to Moynihan and others. They literally removed fathers from homes on purpose.
Part of California’s problem is also the weather; it’s relatively nice there, all four seasons. You can live rough there easier than just about any other place in the world. The people are also generous. They have funded all of these programs for years at the cost of the highest tax rate in the US. The combination of these factors has only increased the problems every year.
There is also a down side to the way California has helped create its own problem. With an economic fierceness that rivals the robber barons, they have effectively eliminated low, and now even medium income housing. The zoning system almost precludes the creation of such housing except in areas where it is almost designed to fail. In the East coast they call it gentrification. After the middle class was priced out of new homes, they began buying older homes and “updating” them. Combined with the prior practice of routing major highways through poorer areas, unassisted, low/middle income housing has all but vanished in the state.
In addition, the densities, very low, make public transportation uneconomical as well. This requires even more public funds, as do the incredible environmental and local restrictions on development of any type. The continuing debacle of the bullet train program in California is a prime example of some of what is wrong as well. Unending litigation, increased costs far beyond initial projection are only part of the problem, but they are seemingly always there.
However, it would be a mistake to say that this is all California’s problem. To a greater or lesser degree it is happening everywhere in the US. California is merely a precursor and the factors noted above have made it much worse there, for now. It is to the Californians’ credit that they have gone further and spent more to try to solve the problems. They have neither hidden from it, nor ignored it, but they have yet to solve it.
It would be a mistake to believe that these problems have overwhelmed the California lifestyle. They have not. It is still an incredibly lovely place to live and raise a family, but the rot is spreading ever faster. It is already literally killing San Francisco. Some college campuses have recently been reported as unsafe. Smash and grab robberies are on the up swing through out the state. Businesses have taken note. Stores have closed. Jobs have been eliminated.
Unfortunately, it does not appear that even the current problems have caused a reassessment in proposing solutions. The state still allows not just homes, but whole towns to be built in fire zones that are even more accurately delineated than flood zones. It is no surprise when they burn regularly. It has a decrepit electrical grid that contributes regularly to the fire problem. Zoning and other rules, regulations, litigation, etc., still mandates, not favors, mandates single family homes instead of greater densities. This mandates, although they try to ignore it, continued reliance on a car culture, whether gas or electric, that is already strangling the cities. It still dumps enough fresh water into the Pacific Ocean that could solve its recurrent water crises. None of these problems will be easy, or cheap, to fix no matter what solution is chosen.
While all this needs to change, there does not yet seem to be agreement on how. We will see?
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My book, Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive is available on Amazon both as a paperback and on Kindle. It is a Five Star book with lots of reviews, many by others that were there in Vietnam with me at the time. Please give it a look. See; Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive 1968
Recent Reviews of Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive:
“John Harrison does an eloquent job writing what it was like being in the infantry during the Vietnam war. I know, I was in the infantry in Vietnam. There is a statistic which states that only 1 out of 10 who served in Vietnam were in the infantry. All of us have been asked what that was like at one point since our return. It is an impossible question for most of us to answer in part much less in full. John Harrison manages to do this in his book, Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive. So, if you are inclined and wonder what it was like, or you want to tell someone else what you went through, buy this book. Show it to your friend, show it to your family. It tells your story. To, “LT” John Harrison- thank you Sir.Salute.”
“John Harrison’s book, Steel Rain, the Tet Offensive, is a series of short stories, told mostly in the first person, that weaves together the humor and violence that only a talented writer can accomplish. The result is a compelling book that is hard to put down. John’s words flow easily on the pages, making an easy read. I highly recommend this book to anyone that has been there and did that, or anyone wanting to know a personal record of one lucky Lieutenant in Vietnam and the people that made it possible for him to return home.
Dan Hertlein, helicopter mechanic with the 192nd AHC at LZ Betty 1968″
“John is the soldier speaking the truest story of Vietnam. I will confirm his action as I was in a different company same battalion, fighting the same battles.”
JohnEHarrison 