Low regard for property there also happens in rentals. I rented a house once to a stream of different people at the bottom of the bucket, and believe me it wasn't easy. I'm all for privatization in low cost housing in inner-cities. Do you think it is economical enough for the developer.. Will tenants still indiscriminately trash their surroundings? Of course we all heard of slum lords.
No, of course it's not economical. If it was economical, then public housing wouldn't be subsidized. It would be gaining money, not requiring it. Tenants will trash their surroundings for as long as it doesn't cost them much to do so. In apartments where fines and fees are levied against tenants, they normally don't have problems like this. Under public housing where the government pays for the cost of the place no matter how it is treated, and the tenants are never fined for damage, there is no reason for them to reign in destructive behavior.
When I lived in an apartment, the guy next door was doing something that was damaging the fence in front, and his kids left their junk all over the place. The management started fining him for the cost of replacing the fence, and the trashing of the area by his kids. Amazingly, he stopped damaging the fence, and his kids suddenly started cleaning up after themselves.
However, that was not the case just a block down the road at the Section 8 apartments. The management which got paid the same by the tax payers, had no reason to deal with damaged property which would be covered by government subsidies, nor dealt with the trashing of the entire area.
The solution is simply to eliminate government funded housing. Yes that means the rent prices will rise. But I believe that just like the welfare lady I mentioned before, that people will not just roll over and die. They will do what is required to survive, either by finding a better job, taking a second job, finding a roommate, or cutting expenses to pay for their apartment.
I think the real solution lies one step lower than housing and welfare: family and school. Schools are possible to improve perhaps with more money to buy better teachers and facilities, but the family is not. Cultures are very hard to change, (as we see in the MidEast) As the years pass, the American ghetto mind is becoming more firmly entrenched in the progeny.
Eliminate no-fault divorce. Stop the break down of family values. Eliminate programs that make it economical to not be married. Nothing is a better more accurate indicator of future poverty, drugs, abuse, and crime, than divorce and children growing up in a single parent, or broken home.
I think schools should be privatized too, or completely overhauled with the elimination of teachers unions and federal controls. In Asian countries, they spend a fraction what we do on students, and end up with far better results. Increasing funding will not help in the same way it hasn't for the past 50 years.
There are lots of small success stories, but the country needs a big one. My feeling is that the current welfare system is make-do to prevent a massive upheaval of some sort. It is hard to see how any institution - governmental or private will be able to exhibit the wisdom to make the necessary changes. Liberals seem content to leave the situation as is. It is up to conservatives to come up with a viable alternative. You have admirably done your share, but it seems that some conservatives here have the attitude "f*** them". Do you have a viable solution for inner-cities to replace the one that's there?
Not in the sense of a massive fix-all solution, no. We need to end the economic incentives to being poor. That sounds illogical, but in reality, it's very true. We have made being poor, profitable, and thus people have taken advantage of the system.
A reporter in Canada went undercover and became a beggar for a month. His report showed that many beggars "earn" more than $100 a day. A reporter in Ohio (I believe) once did a report on homelessness, and followed a beggar standing by a down town free-way exit. He followed him back to his car, and then followed the car back to his apartment where his wife got home from work later that day.
These people have discovered that with food stamps, welfare, public housing, medicaid, plus private charity services, and finely supplemental income from begging, they can systematically milk the working class for a living. One report I read not too long ago, said that mathematically, when you compare the hours "worked" as a beggar, verses the money collected, and benefits received by government programs, the average beggar "earns" $15 to $20 per hour. In other words, it's nearly more economically sound to be a beggar, than a fast food worker or medical lab technician.
My view is this. We need to simply eliminate these programs. These people are not going to just sit on the ground and die. They are going to do the same as the welfare lady. They are going to get up, get a job, and earn a living. When you make it less economical to be on the welfare rolls, and collecting government assistance, people will change how they live.
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