We were impressed with the turnout at the recent campaign event supporting the candidacy for governor of New Mexico by Deb Haaland. After the event, however, Margaret commented on her surprise that the segment allotted for questions did not produce anything on the topic of homelessness. That might have just reflected the short time available, but it still seems that the subject might have had a higher priority of concern.
It seems people may just be overwhelmed by the size and seeming intractability of the problem of homelessness. Most efforts to combat the problem have often seemed superficial, or just a shifting ot the problem from one locale to another.
Estimates of the scope of the problem and ineffective remedies are probably mostly accurate. Less clear are perceptions of the fundamental causes. There seems to be a widespread tendency to ascribe moral and behavioral impropriety to the homeless, with an accompanying suggestion of a need for correction or punishment. In fact, about half of the people confined in Albuquerque's jails are classified as homeless.
It seems more likely that successfully analyzing the fundamental causes of homelessness needs to look more broadly at historical and economic trends. That thought prompted me to submit a request to Google's AI Mode to produce a chart comparing the trajectories of homelessness and economic inequality since the beginning of the Reagan Presidency in 1981.
Comparing homeless rates among different countries and economies does not yield easily to statistical analysis because of different national statistical approaches. However, some relevant facts emerge from queries about homelessness internationally.
Finland is widely cited as the only EU country where homelessness has consistently declined, driven by its "Housing First" policy. This approach provides permanent housing as a fundamental right before addressing other issues like addiction or mental health, rather than requiring people to be "housing-ready" first. Since the strategy began in 2008, the country has successfully converted almost all temporary shelters into permanent housing units. According to 2023 data, there are fewer than 3,500 people experiencing homelessness nationwide in Finland.
Economist Paul Krugman has posted an article on Substack comparing economic development in China and the U.S. :
China Has Overtaken America
And Trump’s policies guarantee that we will never catch up
The evidence:
"The most obvious example of Trump’s war on a critical sector, and the most consequential for the next decade, is his vendetta against renewable energy. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill rolled back Biden’s tax incentives for renewable energy. The administration is currently trying to kill a huge, nearly completed offshore wind farm that could power hundreds of thousands of homes, as well as cancel $7 billion in grants for residential solar panels. It appears to have succeeded in killing a huge solar energy project that would have powered almost 2 million homes. It has canceled $8 billion in clean energy grants, mostly in Democratic states, and is reportedly planning to cancel tens of billions more."
Krugman's conclusion:
"Does this mean that the U.S. is losing the race with China for global leadership? No, I think that race is essentially over. Even if Trump and his team of saboteurs lose power in 2028, everything I see says that by then America will have fallen so far behind that it’s unlikely that we will ever catch up."
As Trump's devastation of the economy progresses it is worthwhile considering what a thoughtful use of tariffs might look like. Zyphyr Teachout's latest column in The Nation explores that idea, with dissections of both the MAGA and the neoliberal Democrat strategies.
"Trump’s chaotic, personalized trade agenda is certainly extreme. But so is the opposite vision: tariff abolition, with no guardrails, no democratic planning, and no strategy. Real industrial policy—the kind that builds capacity, disperses power, and supports workers—lives between those extremes. That’s the tradition we should be reclaiming."
Read:
I had developed an interest in anthropology during my time at the University of Washington, but somehow it was not channeled into the local access that was available to native cultures. Instead, I wandered off to explore a bit of the Northwest Amazon which my months there only gained me a superficial view of the possibilities of learning about traditional societies.
Most of the art discussed by the presenters was recent work by Canadian indigenous artists. I have never been very interested in museum-directed work of that kind, but the discussion did point to the importance of the underlying motivations and history. The brief comments on the role of art in the traditional cultures of the Pacific Northwest, however, really sparked my interest in the subject.
I was particularly taken by the explanation by Bonnie Devine about the Potlatch as a key element of a sustainable economy. Of course, that subject was touched on in my college classes, but I only remember it being presented as kind of an aberrant curiosity. Devine's few words on the topic made the tradition of giving away precious art objects seem perfectly rational and practical. Thinking the next day about that viewpoint brought me to the idea that a modern day analogy might be the history of the Free Software Movement.
So, I am looking forward now to several more visits to the current exhibition at the Art Museum and to spending some time exploring the available literature on the subject.
