PJ Gaenir

A member of the Philip Greenspun's Homepage community since May 9, 1999

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May 9, 1999, on Welfare Reform:
Interesting essay, Phil. While the details of the solution are probably best open for more discussion, the overall gestalt of your suggestion -- and the reasons for it -- are valid. I have had a good deal of experience with the homeless. My perspective on this might be a little different as a result. First, a simply staggering number of homeless are invisible. You don't see them. I lived in an RV for awhile and used to park behind the businesses in the industrial section of town. At about 3am I could step out and see cars everywhere, small and large, filled with entire families often, of homeless. By morning they would have vanished. The economy I was living in at the time -- Ventura County in mid-southern coastal California -- was such that anything short of two full time jobs making at least a couple dollars more than minimum wage per hour would not support a family even in poverty, except on paper. I also met many homeless people who told me they didn't work because...