&gt; Are people downvoting because the things you mentioned aren&#x27;t actually very effective?<p>If so, they&#x27;ve missed the point of my comment. When the author describes veterans as being &quot;unexotic&quot;, the implication is that comparatively few people care about them. It&#x27;s orthogonal to whether or not veterans causes have been successful in remedying, for instance, the dysfunction of the VA.<p>Last I checked, we haven&#x27;t been particularly successful at solving - for example - inner city poverty (a cause the author describes as &quot;exotic&quot;). Hence, whether or not a problem is solved is not a reliable barometer for whether or not it&#x27;s important to the public.