Homeless Or Worthless? Essay, Research Paper
Homeless or Worthless.
The dictionary describes the word homeless as having no home or place of residence. It
does not say, however, unable to get a job. Homeless people are just that, homeless. They are
not physically disabled or mentally retarded. If, in a rare case, a homeless person is disabled in
any way, he can still get a job at Wendy’s, who has a great disability program. The government
spends billions of dollars a year on shelter for the homeless, when it could be spent on problems
that aren’t caused by just lazyness. When homeless people beg for money on the corner, they
just end up spending it on boose and drugs anyway.
The opportunity to work for a living wage is available to nearly all people. According to
the Bureau of Labor Statistics,”nearly 70% of all new jobs created between 1988 and 2000 are,
or will be, in services and retail.” (Poverty pg. 19). These jobs pay more than minimum wage. A 1999
Department of Housing and Development report showed that in forty five states and two
District of Columbia, families would need to earn only minimum wage to afford a two bedroom
unit priced at fair market rent. These are privately owned, safe, sanitary, and semi-luxury
housing. So getting a job is not a problem since there are many jobs availabe and housing can
be aforded with making only minimum wage.
The government spends billions of wasted dollars a year on shelter for the homeless.
“Overall, the administration’s proposed $26 billion budget for H.U.D. amounts to a $1 billion
increase over the current year. That includes more than $1.25 billion to be devoted to a
new system for helping local governments cope with homelessness by combining funding for a
complex medley of programs under new Homeless Assistance Block Grants.” (Arizona Daily Star).
This amount of money is way too much to be thrown around trying to help the homeless when they are
perfectly capable of helping them selvs. Government funds are nothing to be toyed with. They
could be using this money to pay off the national debt. Homeless people are doing no more
than stealing money from the government.
“Nearly all homeless people have a record of achoholism or felony convictions.”
(The Homeless, pg. 40). What has become apparent is that this is not a temporary problem.
Sympathy for the homeless decreases as they continue to live in public spaces. Also abuses of
funds cause skepticim aboutthe solutions that have been tried. Shelter alone is not a real solution
since in most cases homeless ness is indicative of other problems the system does not address.
Homelessness isbrought on by the person to himself, usually by drugs or alcohol. By spending all
of his money on such parifanailia he goes homeless.
When you stop to think about it there really is no reason for anyone to be homeless.
There are plenty of jobs out there that are willing to hire just about anybody. Getting a job is not
a problem for anyone in America. Homeless people just squeeze by with doing as little as
possible. It’s not that they can’t get a job, it’s that they just don’t have the gumption to go out
and get one. They use government money that can be spent on a much bigger problem than
lazyness. They take the money that they mooch of of people and the government and use it to
buy beer and drugs. This is not a good thing to be spending government money on. If we stop
giving the homeless money, they will someday have to finally get up and earn it themselves.