Bill, it is really sweet that you have taken needy people into your home. However, I am not sure that will solve the homeless problem, since many of the homeless are pretty much unwashed, smell sort of bad, and quite a few of them talk to themselves. There are not enough citizens willing to take in unfortunates like this to solve the homeless problem, which is very complex. Just as a family safety issue, I would be very cautious there, as a lot of them are mentally ill, desperate and delusional.
Communities in the fifties were more cohesive because they were more segregated--people had a lot more in common--usually smaller, and not so dispersed geographically. Another very important factor ensuring that there was no huge homeless problem was that there was very little drug abuse, and the seriously mentally ill were institutionalized. These are the groups that tend to be homeless. I am not sure what less government has to do with factors like societal fragmentation and substance abuse and mental illness, and I would argue that government in the fifties was EXTREMELY intrusive, looking for Communists everywhere, for example. |
