the jimmymac attack!

Part of the reason for homelessness, drug addiction and crime is the chronic state of unemployment in our society. When people do not have work and cannot find work they will resort to other ways to survive and use the time on their hands. I think we need to re-evaluate our priorities and values and ask what is important for our society? It would be nice if the answer was, "people are important. The health and well being of everybody in our society is important." The fact is in the present status quo people are not as important as profit, making money and so-called 'efficiency'. Most all companies believe less people to do more work is the preferred way to go.
How do we increase employment and make all people useful and productive in positive work? I suggest creating programs to help employ the 'unemployable'. We have way too many homeless people. We have a lot of people on welfare. We also have a lot of garbage and litter on the streets. Why not employ homeless people to pick up the litter and keep the streets clean. Funded by public and private money teams of five with a team leader could be assigned to take care of a given block of streets. In return they could be given an additional extra amount on their monthly welfare cheque. This would give them incentive to do it. The team leader could monitor them and keep them accountable. They would be free to work on their own schedule. Bins and wagons they use could have ads to help offset the cost of the operation. It's a win/win/win. Homeless get more money and honest work. We all get cleaner streets. Maybe and hopefully we have less crime and homelessness if people can work their way into more healthy, productive lives.
The staus quo is not good. New ideas must be considered.

Although I live in Canada the American media is ever present here. I watch CNN and other American news daily. The last few weeks the big story taking up hours of air time daily is an alleged rape at Duke University.
Then about two weeks ago I caught two minutes of coverage about an amazing new policy proposal in Massachusetts. The contrast between these two stories is totally typical of America. Sensational micro stories are more important than major improvements to ordinary citizens.
The Massachusetts proposal is to make health care available and mandatory for every citizen. It's about time! Most Americans have health care through their employers. The new idea is like the system used for drivers. Every driver must have insurance to prevent huge uninsured claims from traffic accidents. Similarly the state would require every individual to have health insurance. For those who are not covered by an employer the state would offer an affordable alternative policy. In the end it would cost taxpayers less because uninsured people end up at emergency rooms or neglecting their health until it becomes a serious problem.
The hope is this fantastic idea will work and be adopted by other states also. I'd love to see more news coverage about good, innovative ideas such as this and less coverage of sensational stories that really only affect a small number of people.