The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What
is your take on the necessity of food banks in every city and town for the less
privileged?”
If there is a necessity for food banks in every city and town, that is a massive policy failure, and an indictment of society as a whole. There should be any such necessity. That is why societies create social safety nets. No society is stable if people need food banks to survive. People who are disenfranchised to that extent are a threat to the stability of society since they are no longer stakeholders in it. Their need leads to a rise in petty crime, which feeds a cycle of violence and abuse.
Aside from compassionate grounds, there is an economic reason why every level of society needs to be enfranchised. A community is only as strong as the least of its members. When there is rampant homelessness and hunger, there is also crime, and substance abuse, feeding other, more sophisticated forms of crime. This eventually corrupts upwards. People who are not part of the system are a cost upon it, one way or another.
When we have members of a community who are not earning enough that they are hungry and even homeless, they are not able to best contribute to it. They do not contribute to economic growth, they are unable to be part of human progress. This is to the detriment of the whole. Social safety nets, minimum wage, and guaranteed public housing is not merely charity, and right, it also serves to benefit the whole.
Before we even talk about food banks and feeding the poor, we should have a crystal clear idea of where these hungry and sometimes homeless people come from. Many are the result of unstable families - families that have no idea how to run themselves effectively. The children resulting from such families then continue the cycle of poverty, hunger, and homelessness. Solve that first, before we even spend time thinking about "social safety nets".
ReplyDeleteSolving that is part of the safety net. What did you think a safety net? Giving money? That is not efficient. There has to be a system to arrest people falling down the socioeconomic ladder, and helping them back up.
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