As a flaming ultra-liberal Durango resident, I would like to take a moment and agree with the conservative letter writers who have recently pointed out that throwing money at the homeless problem is wasteful.
These conservatives are correct.
Handouts and support programs, particularly at the local level, are a futile use of taxpayer money. These efforts produce warm fuzzies among liberal hippie types, but are merely a balm to ease a guilty conscience and do very little to address the underlying causes of homelessness.
However, I find it ironic that while conservatives are hostile to helping the homeless locally, they support programs on the federal level that cause it in the first place: tax breaks for the rich, tax breaks for corporations, deregulated financial markets, opposition to minimum wage legislation and opposition to “socialist” programs that help people with healthcare and retirement costs. Overall, conservatives favor unbridled free-market capitalism, where it’s dog-eat-dog, mano-a-mano, and you’re basically on your own, Bub.
Unfortunately, this just ends up further widening the income disparity in our country; where the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and surprise, surprise, little towns like Durango see more homeless living (and now, dying) on our streets.
If conservatives really want to help with the homeless situation, they should start by looking in the mirror. Liberal programs that spend taxpayer dollars helping the homeless are just cleaning up the mess made by conservatives in the first place.
Tom Sluis
Durango
