Atlanta Homeless Effort Fails. Solution: Throw More Money at it!

March 31, 2009 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Corruption, Health, Homeless, Liberals, Society/Culture, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston |

-By Warner Todd Huston

Atlanta thought it had a great idea. Instead of its citizens being accosted by bums and panhandlers in the street, the idea was to set up parking meter-like machines for people’s donations instead of handing the money straight to the bums. Then, the money collected from Atlanta’s well-meaning citizens would be used to enlarge government programs for the homeless.

After six months the donation meters have only netted $500, a sum that won’t go too far especially in the over priced world of government programs. In fact, the machines themselves cost far more than that. So, the meters are pretty much a bust. In that case one might think that the Atlanta city council would quietly shelve the idea as one born of that good ol’ college try, but a failed one nonetheless.

But then, one would be imputing logic and good sense to a government, wouldn’t one? It turns out that the solution to the question about the program isn’t to end it like sensible people would, no, in all its infinite wisdom the Atlanta city government decided that throwing even more money at this failed program is the best plan.

Despite the program’s dismal beginnings, Atlanta leaders are encouraged. They are installing more of the “giving meters” and using signs to make more people aware of the machines. In other cities, like Denver, thousands of dollars have been raised to help the needy.

Failure in government speak means not enough money. And, only a government could think that the only solution to a problem is to take away the person-to-person element and substitute a government program.

So, the program is a boondoggle that cost a king’s ransom to set up, has not yielded the donations needed to make the program a success, did not lead to helping any homeless people, and yet… and yet the city fathers are “encouraged” that more city money will fix everything.

This is an object lesson in the failure of government.

____________
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston

Fair Use: This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of political, human rights, economic, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, educational, or satirical purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site/blog for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Bookmark to:

If you would like to make a comment, please register to do so. I hate to do that but there are so many spam-bots out there that deleting spam comments would be a full time job if I were to just open it up for anyone without asking them to jump through a few hoops first.

You must be registered and logged in to post a comment. Anyone can register. No registrant's information is kept, used, or sold. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER