What If Housing Were A Human Right
(This is a chapter from Lee Camp's upcoming e-book "Dangerous Ideas".)
Congress’ inability to actually represent the real live human beings of America, combined with an economic system that rewards lack of empathy and an excess of greed, has brought us to a dark time when an oncoming tsunami of financial ruin, destitution, and evictions towers over our heads, blocking out the sunlight.
No matter when you’re reading this, there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of homeless people across the U.S. Bear in mind during the pandemic our government bailed out big banks and Wall Street to the tune of $4.25 Trillion, but on top of that the Pentagon has over $21 Trillion of unaccounted-for adjustments on their books over the past 20 years and can’t account for half their assets. This is to say — there’s plenty of money.
Money is an idea, a concept, an imaginary metaphysical belief, and it’s high time we faced the fact that the U.S. government has an unlimited imagination. As philosopher Alan Watts once put it — Money is not a thing, it’s a measurement. Saying there’s not enough money to do something is like a builder saying there’s not enough inches to build a house. He has the wood, nails and hammers. He’s just out of inches.
The U.S. government could’ve easily given every American $2,000 a month during the pandemic housing crisis to keep almost everybody in their homes and apartments. In fact, Canada opted to give $2,000 a month to those who lost work because of the pandemic.
But ignore the fact that there’s enough money. That’s not what we’re here to discuss.
There are also enough empty homes. As of 2022, there were 16 million vacant homes in the country. Compare that to...
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