You know their answer will be that the homeless just need to work harder.
Are you posting these links in reply to me because you think I am suggesting the homeless need to work harder?
No just resources, if you had that conversation with a coworker.
Thanks, sorry for the misinterpretation!
All good!
“Libertarian” always seems like a misnomer. Libertarians only want people like themselves to experience liberty. They aim to do nothing to address inequities like social and systemic discrimination against LGBT+ people, BIPOC, women, and others. They aim to do nothing to address poverty. It’s social darwinism at its ugliest. This is why they are practically indistinguishable from conservatives here in the US – the way they arrive may look different, but the outcomes are the same. At best, they are wearing blinders. At worst, they actively support the power structures and systems that result in things like poverty and abuse.
People who legitimately do seek liberty should instead be looking to things like anarchism, which is interested in addressing the root causes of all of these problems, such as hierarchies and the state.
“Libertarian” used to be a synonym for left-wing anarchism until Murray Rothbard purposefully co-opted the term and even bragged about it.
Fellow left-wing anarchists: should we just give up on trying to reclaim this word? What do you call yourself among people who don’t know the context?
In Europe it’s way more ambiguous. Also: you can simply specify “left-wing”, or “right-wing” libertarian.
I usually just say “anarchist”, though ;)
There is equality and there is equity. Libertarians are for equality even if it creates non-equity.
Let me give an abstract example so that it is not politically charged. Suppose that there are green-skinned people in our society that for some historical reason value writing poetry above all else. And they are trying to earn their living by writing poetry and sometimes having second part time usually low paid job to support themselves.
Libertarian would say that these green people has absolute right to do so, and face consequences of their choice. This is liberty.
People who advocate equality would say - no, there is systemic green-ism that leads to green people being consistently underpaid, having less percent of them in high level jobs like CEO, and so on. They then propose all sorts of laws that will treat green people differently so that the average salary, average number of CEOs per 100,000 population and other similar metrics associated with “success” are the same for green people. This kind of differential treatment of green people is absolutely against to liberty minded people, that includes libertarians, that think that the laws should be the same to all people, regardless of their skin color, genetics and so on.Interesting that the systemic discrimination in your case is due to a conscious choice and not systemic discrimination.
You describe the origins of “starving artist” and not “oppressed race” IMO.
I assumed he was loosely referring to religion. “Go forth and multiply” [regardless of available support] is a huge source of suffering in the world.
People who legitimately do seek liberty should instead be looking to things like anarchism
Interestingly, ‘libertarian’ was originally a euphemism for ‘anarchist’, until it was co-opted by the right
You can’t fully experience liberty unless everyone is free
I’ve had this conversation, he thought everything would be fine if we eliminated zoning laws.
I mean, wasn’t the elimination (or extreme relaxation by American standards) of zoning laws one of the ways Tokyo has been able to afford to house so many people at such affordable rates?
Not saying we need kindergartens between the sewage recycling plant and the land fill, but being able to build housing over shopping centers would be nice.
Their actual answer is volunteer donations.
And considering how many libertarians think that poverty is essentially due to personal choice, we can all imagine how many of them are willing to voluntarily donate money to helping the poor.
We just need more Billionaires and they will solve the problem since they ara morally superior and know whats best!!! /s
That may be, but they think that it is greater evil to forcefully take money from somebody else (through obligatory taxes) and spend on homeless than letting homeless be homeless.
They’re wrong.
Oh yeah, I know that’s what they think, it’s just a bit silly that they advocate for charity to solve homelessness while at the same time they more or less want the homeless to literally die
Easy: Let them starve and the invisible hand will take care of their bodies
Something, something, invisible hand of the free market and Social Darwinism. Dead people can’t be in poverty, right? Problem solved!
if there’s enough people who can’t afford a home, there will suddenly be a lot more homes on the housing market - thought that one was obvious… /s
Yes, we should all look at how we eradicated homelessness in SanFrancisco with leftist policies, and spread that shining example to every city.
wHy cAnT sAn fRaNcIsCo sOlVe tHe sYsTeMiC pRoBlEm oF hOmElEsSnEsS? CHeCkmAte! RiP lEfTiSm 🤓
Every state in the USA is still capitalist regardless of which party is ruling
I mean, yes, technically that isn’t wrong.
But let’s be real, to say (or imply) that all regions operate at the same level of “capitalism” is a disingenuous argument. It seems that if the housing issue in the US were this truly the fault of capitalism, then one would expect that more leftist variations to produce better results for solving homelessness.
While not familiar with the data on this, it’s my understanding that large cities in left leaning states tend to do worse at finding/providing long term housing to unhoused people.
I’m open to looking at contrary data, but that’s really what it’d take to sway my opinion on the matter.
I wonder why communist China has so many homeless if homelessness is a feature of capitalism
Got any sources on Chinese homeless populations compared to American homeless populations?
