It is very unsettling that in the United States there are half a million homeless people, and one quarter of these individuals are children. While there are many homeless shelters provided, numerable homeless individuals have mentioned that they will avoid homeless shelters at all costs due to known violent incidents, including sexual assault. Thousands of people are living in unsafe conditions on the streets and avoiding homeless shelters, due to fear for themselves or for their children. If we do not take a step as a society towards improving these conditions, then we will continue to let these homeless individuals live in danger; causing more harm to the copious amounts of unfortunate human beings living around us. If we have the tools to improve this horrific situation, we must do what is in our power for the overall benefit of society.
Running Mayor of Sacramento Sen. Darrell Steinburg was an architect for Proposition 63 (The Mental Health Services Act of 2004). This places a 1% tax increase on earnings over a million dollars and produces $1.75 billion a year. This idea was embraced by Sen. Pro Tem Kevin, and would use $130million of that amount annually to finance a $2 billion housing bond in LA (latimes.com). Housing Bonds are debt securities that are issued by state or local government to raise money for affordable housing development. Wealthy individuals earning $1 million or more annually might oppose this, and believe that being taxed due to their higher earnings to help someone else live a better life is unfair and should not be required. This sense of entitlement while being aware of the current struggles in society shows great disregard towards the livelihood of the ones who are not as fortunate. I would rather be a person dissatisfied than a pig satisfied, therefore we should strive for a better society as a whole, not just individual comfort levels.
In addition to helping many homeless individuals live better and healthier lives, the money being taxed could possibly be used in ways that will result in the benefit of many aspects of society. By solving homeless we can fix many more societal issues such as “truancy from schools, food insecurity, drug and alcohol abuse, and unemployment. It is possible that directing more resources towards solving homelessness could actually save society money by helping to fix its other ills at the same time” (latimes.com). A step to help the homeless can go a very long way, and consequently greatly improve society as a whole.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-homeless-solutions-20160510-column.html
http://time.com/money/4356367/millionaire-tax-los-angeles-homeless/