Friday, July 10, 2026

Hating the Poor

 


Addiction is a mental health issue.  It's a sociological issue.  It's a medical issue.  Sure, there are some people (rich people) who infamously use drugs for recreational purposes and then become addicts.  But, by virtue of their being rich (and/or famous) their numbers are few.  If you honestly believe that drug addiction is simply a question of morals and self-discipline, you still have to explain the epidemic of public consumption of drugs that has reached unprecedented levels in North America.

Are we really to believe that there's just been some massive breakdown in personal morals, unrelated to any other socioeconomic trends, that is responsible for what we're seeing today? That seems to be the case with "conservatives" (who still love crack-smoking, alcoholic Rob Ford).

More widespread of an issue is homelessness.  It's been rising for decades.  Jobs are more precarious, the incomes those precarious jobs earn have stagnated, the price of housing has skyrocketed, and corporate oligarchs are price-gouging us everywhere they can.  It's no wonder that the problem of homelessness has grown.  And yet, many people look at this and decide that it's just a case of the homeless simply having given up on wanting to support themselves.  Social programs have declined, and it was supposedly the seductive allure of the 1980's general welfare assistance that caused lazy people to drop out of the labour market, but more people are poorer than they were then.

When the root of the problem is so clearly the capitalist political-economic system, the choice of some people to blame to poor for their predicament, and to then HATE the poor, is pathological. 

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