For Homeless Advocates, a Discouraging Lesson in L.A.: Money Is Not Enough
I&#x27;m sincerely trying not to be a dick here but I thought this was obvious...<p>Lots of problems (most?) in many neighborhoods (and organizations in general) and families are not a simple function of &quot;not enough money.&quot; They are deep rooted problems with self-sustaining feedback loops of vice.<p>There&#x27;s true poverty unhappiness, which is simply not enough money to pay normal bills.  But science has basically settled at this point in that &quot;after being enough to pay the bills and have a little in savings, happiness no longer increases with more income.&quot; And happiness is a pretty good qualifier of general well-being.<p>You can&#x27;t dump money into Afghanistan and have them all run around with American flags and Mustangs.<p>You can&#x27;t dump money into a neighborhood and expect everyone to become great workers who love each other.<p>Likewise, you can&#x27;t &quot;love people&quot; more and expect it either. You don&#x27;t stop a drug abusing family member with only hugs. You send them to therapy. _Love is not enough_.<p>The best summary is in this quote from the article:<p>&gt;“You cannot force a project onto a community at all costs,” said Mr. Huizar,<p>Even if politicans and &quot;well meaning&quot; people are hell bent on pushing something through, doesn&#x27;t mean it&#x27;s going to actually help people. (&quot;The road to hell is paved with good intentions.&quot;)<p>People are not simple. Adults have decades of experiences that got them where they are. And simply giving them something won&#x27;t undo those experiences. They need counselling. They need structure and jobs that rewards positive character traits. And guess what? Plenty of people still aren&#x27;t going to get better. Why? Because you can&#x27;t improve people who don&#x27;t want to get better. You can&#x27;t &quot;fix people&quot; like solving a math problem. Both parties have to commit and genuinely desire change.<p>If we actually want change--and not to just send money to feel better about ourselves (see: Live Aid, which gave almost nothing to actual victims and may have actually helped kill over 100,000 [1])--we can&#x27;t simply &quot;Give money.&quot; We need actual scientists doing research (they already exist) and we need to find and listen to them even if their recommendations don&#x27;t align with our political ideologies.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;world&#x2F;2005&#x2F;jun&#x2F;24&#x2F;g8.debtrelief" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;world&#x2F;2005&#x2F;jun&#x2F;24&#x2F;g8.debtrelief</a>