The problem of the poor

In twenty-first century  North America, there should be no homeless or truly poor people in our societies. How can we claim to be rational, civilized people when we spend millions on armaments, sports and space travel, and ignore our fellow human beings, many of whom lack even the necessities of life? There are many possible ways to help the poor. Here are a few suggestions.

1.) No healthy young person should be allowed to leave school without a skill or trade with which he can earn a living. High schools need to offer more specialized training courses which include practical components. A job placement department should be an integral part of each senior educational facility.

2.) The minimum wage should be kept at a level at which anyone working steadily and receiving it can maintain an average standard of living, by working forty hours a week.

3.)Mentally ill persons should not be free to roam the streets. They should be kept in protective custody, treated and cared for until they are able to rejoin society and become productive citizens. If this takes years, or even a lifetime, so be it. They will fare better under these circumstances, than they would being homeless.

4.)There should be centers and group homes established for developmentally delayed, and severely disabled people who have no support system in place. These homes may be used for full time care or respite facilities for families needing a break from the full time care of a loved one.

Children under sixteen are routinely taken into protective custody for their own benefit if they are alone and unsupervised. Yet we allow adults whose mental age is much less than sixteen to wander around freely, lest we interfere with their "human rights". Surely the most important human right is to have food, shelter, and safety in a residence where they are assured of having peace and security.

5.)Drug addicts, and alcoholics should be placed in medical quarters until they are detoxified, then given help and support to reenter society as a contributing individual. If they fall off the wagon, the process would be repeated until they can function without using addictive substances.

6.)There will always be those who are just too lazy to work. They should be assigned to an "attitude readjustment barracks", for a year's intensive training program. They would be awakened early, work strenuously, under strict supervision, until dusk, six days every week, for a year. They would be compelled to study academic subjects in the evening, with no leisure activities except reading, writing and exercise periods in the gym. When the year was finished, a normal life, with a job, a family and all the duties and privileges which accompany this lifestyle, should seem like heaven on earth.

I realize these solutions to poverty will seem harsh and unattractive to some. I propose that they are no harsher than seeing someone frozen to death over a grate on the sidewalk. They are no more unattractive than watching a wasted heroin addict beg for coins in the rain, on a street corner, or seeing a mentally deranged individual gaze around wild-eyed, watching for an imaginary enemy. When it comes to poverty in our midst, we have taken the canon of human rights too far. It's time we replaced it with the principle of common sense