Dear Obama, invest in Rural Care Centers
Many Americans don’t want to believe it, but there are people in this world who are simply unable to care for themselves. People with severe mental illness, severe disability, or people who simply are unable to responsibly hold a job. This group needs housing, needs food and support services and until we find a way to adequately provide for them there will be homelessness, despair, and needless problems riddled throughout this great country.
Now Obama wants to reform the prison system so we aren’t jailing as many people. But in order to do that we also have to create alternatives for people to go to after jail. Many of the people sent to prison fall into the category I described above and as we reform our prison system, many of these same characters will not be able to fend for themselves. If you can come to terms with the fact that America needs to house and care for another 1–3% of the population, and that jail is not the answer, then the next logical question is “how do we do it?”
Rural Towns == Care Center Solutions
I believe the perfect solution would be to take small rural towns that are struggling to survive and provide them with large stimulus packages to build care centers around their small city. It’s a perfect fit because these areas need an economic stimulus, they have cheap land, and they have no jobs to support their citizens. Plus, they operate under the small town mentality of looking out and caring for everyone in their city, which is what the mentally ill really need. Currently we force the mentally unstable to large urban areas where they have negative interactions with too many people. This eventually leads to a big altercation which eventually leads to prison. By placing the mentally ill in more rural areas we ensure they have the space they need and are surrounded by people who can care for them.
If you can come to terms with the fact that America needs to house and care for another 1–3% of the population, and that jail is not the answer, then the next logical question is “how do we do it?”
Another way to think of it is that another 1–3% of the country needs to live in retirement communities. That’s essentially what Rural Care Centers are! With an aging population that hasn’t saved for retirement and more and more people suffering economic hardships each day, this 1–3% estimate might be much higher in 5 years. And you know what the great thing about this new line of work is? Uber can’t replace you with a machine.
I call this program Care for America and it could essentially end homelessness, help the elderly and give people recovering from addiction, bad marriages, bad finances, etc a safe heaven while they get back on their feet. It would give towns suffering to survive a chance to create something new and it would give unemployed individuals a new way to contribute to society.
Objections
There are those with no common sense for how our system works who would argue that it’s unfair to ask people to leave the cities they’re currently in and take up housing elsewhere. These “advocates” think everyone deserves housing wherever they are, regardless if it’s affordable or it’s the most expensive place in the country. Most advocates don’t think about the overall cost to society or how the notion of free housing in prime locations is disrespectful to everyone else working 80 hours a week just to be able to survive. In my experience these advocates are no better than fox news, because all they want to do is fight and do not know where to draw the line.
These “advocates” think everyone deserves housing wherever they are, regardless if it’s affordable or the most expensive place in the country (San Francisco).
To be fair, all cities across America are already trying their best to help the destitute in their area. They simply are unable to do anything more, because of rising land costs, lack of available land, and citizens that honestly, don’t really give a fuck.
The 30 most expensive cities in the America house 40% of America’s homeless population. Apart from what is already built in these cities for the homeless, almost nothing new is being built. And to be honest, it shouldn’t be. If you are going to live on government support systems than you are going to have to live wherever it makes the most sense. Anything otherwise is not fair to taxpayers, it’s not fair to blue collar workers who have to commute 2 hours a day to work in expensive cities, and it’s not fair to everyone in the city working their ass off in worse situations.
Instead, all incentives should be aligned so that anyone has access to a clean safe-heaven if needed and if they want something better than there are opportunities if they contribute some consistent form community service or contribution to society.
The Future
If this model proves successful then it can be replicated all around the world. Homelessness, destitution, and an aging population are not things insular to the United States. Almost all developed nations face these problems and almost all developed nations do not have adequate solutions. As the world around us continues to change, so will the job functions that people are asked to do. Over-populated municipalities, a growing population unable to fend for themselves and economic hardships in rural areas all make Care Center Cities a great idea for our future.
