longer.blue

Drastically reducing the cost of living and/or increasing average wages and minimum wage would go a long way toward—in the near-term, that is; i.e. **for now**, given other contributing factors persist...—abating the problem of poverty and homelessness in the United States, though those facts have essentially been shouted from the rooftops in America for over 40 years now (and, technically speaking, working people in what would become the United States began calling for higher wages and lower costs of living as early as the colonial period, in the 1620s—so **at least** around 400 years ago...) and nothing has happened. In fact, the cost of living has only gotten worse overall since the 1970s; thus, it seems that legal and political processes won't be a means to securing basic human rights and a livable future for the average American... ... Then again, as Emma Goldman wrote (bracketed interpretations and emphases/asterisks mine), "Ask for work [reasonable means to earn the ability to meet one's basic needs]. If they don't give you work [access to said means], ask for bread [those needs being directly met/fulfilled]. If they do not give you work or bread, then **take** bread."