Let me start off my saying, I am terrified of writing this article, because the truth really hurts, and I am sure that many who think with their feelings are going to be horrified by this article, but please read the complete idea here and then judge the hell out of me, I am brutally honest, and we need a logical solution. In our current paradigm, money is donated to charities who donate to their cohorts who donate 10% or so of what is left to help the homeless. Shelters and soup kitchens are a Band-Aids that need to be removed because they are not needed anymore, not funded and expanded. Here in Alaska, Anchorage homelessness increases by 10% a year, when will an actual solution be tried?
Like most solutions in our capitalist world, the answer is to monetize the homeless and create a demand for people to want to participate. This is about where some people are going to stop reading and leave comments I am sure, but if the how is coming soon, and your going to want to stick around for it.
In 2008, there were approximately 1.5 million homeless in America. Housing of course is the ultimate goal, and is attainable if we as a society will be a little less politically correct, and not start throwing around Nazi words, and interment camps to this proposition. This project would have to be done in stages to work, and I believe it will be a world changing event. I must first tell you about Alaska, and how and what subsistence living is.
Alaska has a great amount of land that is bountiful in game and produce, and best of all vacant. Native Alaskans here already live off the land as they have for generations, but I propose a new spin on old methods. For example, a 5,000 acre plot is fenced in with game inside. Harvesting Moose, Caribou, or even fish, can be smartly managed by changing the physical conditions the animals are in. Rabbits can be inside warrens that allow for easy selection of game for harvest, moose and caribou can be grained out and automatically slaughtered by a program, and fish can caged in locations within streams and rivers....my point is that wild game can be farmed and still run free. By selectively culling your wild game, you will promote the health of your herds. My point is, that here in Alaska, the homeless can be fed without outside help once the infrastructure is in place. Buildings can be constructed very cheap, one such way is Earthbag Construction, if you not familiar with it, Google the term please. Basically the cost of burlap bags and barbed wire, with some labor involved of course.
Now that we have the safety net of the project in order, now lets talk about...what the homeless want for once. I am using general terms here, and I understand not 100% will want the following, but logic should tell you that generally the following is true. The Homeless want Food, Water, Shelter, Clothing, and to be left alone to do what they please. This may be to cast off all obligations of the world and get their drink on, or what ever the situation, but generally, all of them do not want to be looked down upon, and they want to do as they please. A great deal of them want to drink alcohol. Casting judgement will not solve the issue, but make it worse...the homeless are going to need the ability to produce beer, wine, and spirits. Since this is Alaska, they can also grow marijuana. The reason the homeless want to hang around cities, despite homeless shelters and soup kitchens, is the ability to pan-handle to purchase alcohol or other narcotics. If the homeless are going to stay some new place, they will need the ability to get their recreational drugs.
Now to the monetizing part. Americans love watching Television, and I think we should steal a few ideas from Hollywood to solve this one. I think a Truman Show scenario wouldn't be too far off from my proposal, except that everyone knows about the cameras. I think installing cameras and flying drones while televising the road to end homelessness will attract a huge audience to the project. Advertisers will want to donate their goods to the 24hr streaming taking place. The homeless will have names and can be sponsored if they choose, or stay anonymous too. The audience can actually watch their donations fly in to the sponsored in a Hunger Games fashion. Advertisement money can be used for general upkeep of the facility, and expansion. A medical facility could be funded through donations directly by the audience as well as proceeds from advertisement. There are very many ways that the homeless would benefit within this society, and donations to the homeless would be direct.
As stated above, this would have to be done in phases. Perhaps starting with our Vets and the unsheltered. Here in Alaska, villages already exist that govern themselves mostly, this would be not to far from that. Banishment should be the punishment that results from harming someone else. The life in this style of living is above the lifestyle the homeless currently have, by taking and keeping the ones who truly want to be there, I believe that a true community will form out of it. (Banishment would be returning to a city to beg again, soon the beggars will be just the outcasts that harm others, deserving no help).
Thanks for reading, go ahead and comment away!
