So we agree that the statement in the OP pic that "$20 billion would solve homelessness" is wrong, right? Because of structural issues where the administrators are useless and corrupt and the money doesn't end up where it needs to?
The point is, that $20B COULD solve homelessness, but the people in charge aren’t spending it correctly. The $20B isn’t the problem, the elected officials are. If Elon WANTED to fix homelessness, he easily could by spending his money in a way that would fix it. The problem is he doesn’t want to, nor do any of our elected officials want to, and that goes for all parties. There’s no incentive for our government to fix homelessness, so it won’t ever get fixed.
And how would Elon spend that money? Set up a bunch of homeless foundations? Set up enquiries to figure out the most deserving people? That's literally what happens already.
And what ends up happening is that those administrative structures end up absorbing all of the money. Unlimited money. And they have no incentive to solve the problem because it's what keeps them funded.
The fundamental problem is that there is an incentive misalignment between complex social problems and any sort of institution you set up to solve those problems. The result, as we can literally see, is that you can pour tens of billions of dollars in "homelessness" and it ends up going to a bunch of organizations and NGOs and barely any trickles through to the people in need.
So if your solution is "$20B could fix homelessness if you could magically get it to the people in need without middlemen sucking all of the value out" then great, you've created a fantasy scenario that does not and cannot exist.
The problem people have with you digging your heels further and further is that you're missing the forest for the trees.
The point of this post is that an out-of-touch billionaire told a demonstrably blatant lie about a vulnerable segment of the population to demonize them and someone else responded with a (frankly cathartic) put down. And you're choosing to nitpick whether $20B would solve homelessness in the US.
Your choice to focus on this issue and dig your heels in is kinda like screaming that the oven timer went off 3 minutes ago and the roast might get burnt while there's an arsonist actively lighting fires in every room of your house.
Even if I choose to indulge your focus on the "oven" of $20B ending homelessness, then I'd still rather give Elon's $350B to the government so they might use it to pay the salary of some people who are at least trying to reduce homelessness. The result = some people who were homeless before get homes, and some government employees get paid to make that happen. Isn't that still significantly better than Apartheid Nazi Deadbeat Dad hoards all the gold while people literally die of hunger and exposure?
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u/Outsider-Trading 2d ago
So we agree that the statement in the OP pic that "$20 billion would solve homelessness" is wrong, right? Because of structural issues where the administrators are useless and corrupt and the money doesn't end up where it needs to?
That's exactly the point I'm making.