Michael Lissack in this regard: If we fail to repair a leak in the roof of a house we own, we suffer a financial loss as the house’s re-sale value falls. If, on the other hand, we rent the house, then the lost money comes out of the landlord’s pocket, and so we have little incentive to make the necessary repairs. A good land- lord sometimes can get his tenants to act with as much responsibility as is shown by some homeowners, but we have seen already that government is generally a poor landlord. Natural resources, therefore, are better cared for if they are owned by the people who use them. We must reclaim our public spaces. Our quality of life has been adversely affected by the homeless. Only by prohibiting begging, bedding down, and distributing food to homeless people in train and bus stations, parks, and subways can we gain our public spaces back. On streets that have become a gamut of homeless panhandlers, this reclamation requires enforcement of the regulations banning loitering to beg that most municipalities still have on their books. This doesn’t require locking the homeless up in prison but only moving them along or, if need be, jailing resisters for a day or two.
280
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online