WALL OF TEXT: THE HOMELESS

WALL OF TEXT: THE HOMELESS. I saw a man at a bus stop today. Driver asked him if he needed on. The man was unresponsive, but moving in slow motion he got on and searched his pockets, one by one, for his wallet. He found it and started looking through it. Then he picked up his bag and got off the bus again. He didn’t seem to be on this planet. Staring but not comprehending. All I could think was... will that happen to me? I’ve already lost the focus I once had in my 20s and 30s. Will I lose so much focus I can’t think about anything? I see so many homeless people in Columbus. Most of the ones I see are not drug addicts. Rather, they are simply not all there, for lack of a better way to express it. I see so many vacant buildings that could be fixed up and made into hostels for them, but it’s not profitable to do so. The homeless wander. All these new construction projects have displaced them. It occurs to me that it’s so easy to be in their place. One mistake and nobody will hire you. One hit to your credit score and no landlord will rent to you. If you can’t work and government denies you help and you have no family, where are you supposed to go? We are not free to make mistakes and start over. Everything we do goes on a permanent record, which makes me afraid to do anything. If something doesn’t work out, it’s hard to take it back. Jobs don’t pay what they used to, and things cost more than ever, making it difficult to merely “get by” on a part-time job at a gas station or at some local grocery store. I feel so vulnerable now. When I see homeless people, I do not see idiots and freeloaders who deserve to be where they are. I see people who capitalism cannot use, so they are cast aside. They need help. So many of them are clearly not all there. They have something going on. They need help, mentally. Capitalism has destroyed the family as the means of personal support, so corporations should be forced to use their profits to help the people they cast aside. Imagine how fundamentally society would change if corporations had to take responsibility for citizens. If they were required to employ the people and ensure nobody is left behind as society progresses. If the corporation really is more efficient than government, than it should be structured to benefit all people, not just shareholders. The root of our problems is that these systems are designed to benefit the few. Either we as a species decide all life is valuable and should be protected, or we decide that only those who are useful in generating profit for shareholders should be preserved and all others can be discarded and buy a gun and fend for themselves. In short the problem with this country (and increasingly the world) is Wall Street. Corporations. Investment firms. This is where all of the fraud lies. The economy is being propped up by hype and “innovation” is skewed toward whatever investors will fall for. What would happen if we as a society abolished the corporation? We would return to a time when individuals owned things. When the individual truly mattered. It would be the most radical thing we as a species accomplished.