At a recent church meeting, we discussed how best to support the homeless in our area. This raised concerns that the problem was growing and why that was the case.
Someone stated that homelessness was rising because the economy was so bad.
Ex-squeeze me? Are you sure about that?
All the normal macroeconomic indicators are very positive.
Unemployment has been 4% or lower for many months now. The total jobs gained has been overwhelmingly positive, including significant gains in the manufacturing sector.
The stock market is at record heights, with the S&P 500 setting a new all-time high just yesterday.
The GDP was up 5.38% from the previous year in the first quarter (ycharts.com). That translates to gangbusters!
The Consumer Confidence Index is improving.
Many infrastructure projects will kick in, adding to employment, improving how we can access goods, improving our overall safety, and improving how we handle and survive climate change.
Inflation has been a trouble spot. But the US has handled it better and controlled it more swiftly than any other national economy. Seriously, is there anyone out there who didn't understand that the end of the pandemic would result in inflation, with pent-up spending and interference with supply chains?
The issues continuing around inflation center mostly now around corporate greed. Their profits are growing and better than ever, as they use general inflation as an excuse to continue raising prices. They may have begun to understand they have pushed too far, as major retailers, such as Target, Walmart, and Amazon Fresh, are announcing price reductions to re-attract customers. Even gas is coming down.
Wages overall in this country are finally rising. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the year-to-date rise in private industry workers was 4.3%. Many people endlessly complain about the rise in fast-food workers' wages, as if not everyone is entitled to a living wage.
Maybe Georgia is economically depressed despite the rest of the nation. The last unemployment rate for Georgia was 3.1%, while the nation as a whole was 3.9%.
And yet... homelessness is not abating and may be increasing.
Why?
There are other concerns, including mental health and the diminishment of the extended family, but the primary driver is the lack of affordable housing. This includes rentals. Waycross does better than most areas in the country, but it can still be prohibitive, averaging $975 (multiple-bedroom rentals would be significantly more). For those who want fast-food workers to only make minimum wage, that average would be 78% of a full-time worker's pay. Does that sound reasonable to you?
The market does not center itself around low-income housing. I remember when Alison and I looked, very few homes were in the middle-class price range. Most homes we saw promoted would take a six-figure income to buy. How many of you have that?
As the income gap between the rich and the working class continues to grow, housing is going to become more and more difficult. The market is flooded with private equity speculators (including foreign buyers) that drive the market upwards.
It's not so much that the macro-economy is bad as that so many basics are out of whack—housing, college education, medical expenses, to name a few. Most of these markets are driven up by private interests—buying hospitals, controlling health insurance companies, and lending student loans with usurious interest.
These are problems that are difficult to solve, even by Democrats. But they certainly won't be managed by Republicans, who have virtually zero interest in helping the working class and economically disadvantaged get any kind of support over the interests of the wealthy and large corporations.
Gutting the tax rates of corporations and billionaires is not gonna restore any kind of balance in the housing market.
Yes, there are other factors leading to the problem of homelessness, but this is the most important, and I hope to discuss other concerns in future posts.
As people of good faith, we need to extend our help, including food, basic supplies, and shelter. Even if we can't directly solve the overall causes of the problems, that doesn't mean we should do nothing.
But it is not going to go away until we address the economic, social, and political problems that undergird it.
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