Would Universal Basic Income Solve the Homeless Problem?
by John Lawrence, April 17, 2018
Many people are touting the concept of a Universal Basic Income or UBI as a way to keep people out of poverty. Martin Luther King Jr famously talked about a "guaranteed annual income." With the loss of jobs due to automation the idea is that there has to be some way to get cash into the hands of the people so they have the basics of live and so that the consumer economy can keep humming away. However, I don't think that a UBI would solve the basic problems in 21st century America for the following reasons.
First of all, the amount would have to be so small as to be insignificant or else it would dwarf the US annual budget. Second of all, the major problem which forces people into homelessness is ever escalating rent. There seems to be no reasonably priced housing for people at the low end. Here in San Diego there is no lack of expensive high rise condos in downtown, but low cost or low rent apartments. Forget it. They tore them down to build the condos. So it's basically a policy of housing for rich people taking priority. That's what the market has determined.
Thirdly, most of the homeless have a basic income already. I talked to one homeless lady who had an income of about $600. a month from GR - General Relief. A UBI would replace this income with a similar amount so what has been gained? The homeless have also demonstrated that there are more important things to spend money on than housing if you are at the very low end of the income scale. Like drugs, for instance. People will choose drugs and food, first; housing second. You have to go up the income scale before people will also choose to spend money on an apartment.
So I think that society providing "in kind" goods and services is the way to go. Provide housing free rather than giving people the money to buy housing. The same goes for food, medical care, transportation etc., all the basic needs. However, this solution undercuts the basic tenets of capitalist economics which maintains that nothing is free, and you can purchase what you need in the consumer economy or go without. Society providing housing free means that the tax base would have to be extended among the better off to provide for the needs of the worse off. It means that government would have to play a greater role in the economy instead of leaving everything up to the free enterprise system. There is no political will for this solution because the poor and homeless have no power withing the American political system. You only can move the system towards a solution if you have money to spend on lobbyists and campaign contributions. The poor don't.
So the de facto solution is to let the homeless continue to push their belongings around in shopping carts, sleep wherever they can, shoot up wherever they can, urinate and defecate wherever they can and cause a miserable counterpoint and underclass in America's finest cities. America has created a relatively new underclass of people who have developed their own culture, and doesn't seem to want to do anything about it.
In Brave New World, Huxley talks about the underclass known as Epsilons. The overlord class are the Alphas. Society has been divided into classes according to the firt five letters of the Greek alphabet:
"I suppose Epsilons don't really mind being Epsilons," she said aloud.
"Of course they don't. How can they? They don't know what it's like being anything else. We'd mind, of course. But then we've been differently conditioned. Besides, we start with a different heredity."
"I'm glad I'm not an Epsilon," said Lenina, with conviction.
"And if you were an Epsilon," said Henry, "your conditioning would have made you no less thankful that you weren't a Beta or an Alpha."
Huxley's dystopian vision has come true in 21st century America.
