LETTER: Government exacerbates the Las Vegas homeless issue
Here are some thoughts I have after a year spent in and out of homeless shelters:
Why do local municipalities set up laws that essentially prey on the poor and prevent them from achieving their dreams of dignity, such as housing and social stability?
Why, then, do local governments often outlaw feeding the poor in public parks and other areas, or even forbid entrepreneurs from developing affordable housing for us? Las Vegas even has laws that forbid a poor man from standing on a certain public sidewalk. It’s horrible. It’s almost as if lawmakers hate the poor and homeless.
Hundreds die yearly and families are crushed from this government-enhanced abject poverty. The weakest among us must suffer the emotional meat grinder of government aid or else face worse deprivation.
But, lo, homeowners demand protections from the free market to artificially maintain high equity in their homes. Greedy wage earners demand government intrusion to prop up their wages. Why should they care because someone else makes less money than them?
Talk about the rich oppressing the poor. Throughout history, it’s always been easy to plant one’s boot on the neck of the poor. But, in modern times, with freer housing and job markets, we can do better, much better.