This terminology is actually without meaning but it divulges a certain attitude that is far too common in today’s society, that there is something wrong with the free enterprise system. Economics is an objective assessment of how free markets work, when they are left free, and how they don’t when they aren’t left free. All commerce that takes place is, in fact, economics.

The characterization that “heartless economics” is the reason for a person being homeless is like saying the reason that person is homeless is the mountain is made out of “heartless stone.” It is anthropomorphism of an objective process and has nothing to do with the real reasons for homeless. But the statement does reveal the mindset of the writer.

The general gist of the rest of the article is that it is government’s responsibility to solve this “epidemic” while never acknowledging either the individual’s responsibility in his or her own homeless, or the government’s responsibility by the endless regulations and impediments that makes building affordable housing next to impossible.

For example the full phrase that the above quote was taken from is “the final refuge for people squeezed out of homes by heartless economics and hard luck.” Notice that there is no reference to poor personal choices, drug and alcohol usage or any notion of personal responsibility. Nowhere in the editorial are such considerations raised. By this account all homeless are simply victims, sort of like the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

That for some of these people this is the preferred lifestyle is also clearly anathema. The problem that has arisen on the Leeward coast is as much due to the slow removal of permanent homeless encampments on the north shore and in downtown city parks, under bridges and the like than any increase in homelessness. The Waianae coast is simply the least enforced area so that is where the homeless are going.

In tandem with the fact that the editorial never acknowledges that the homeless problem is in great part a creation of government it advocates government as the solution. It notes that family, friends and other social services acted as a safety net and goes on to assert without evidence “But that safety net is now full of holes.”

When did that happen? When did families and friends disappear? When did we dismantle the “safety net” so now that it is “full of holes?” When did any of that change? It hasn’t. This is more typical alarmism by those that want the government to “do something!”

Just last month Gov. Lingle signed bills that dedicate $40 million to affordable housing and homeless programs, a 400 percent increase over last year, with $16.6 million in grants to specific homeless programs. While giving a nod to these bills as addressing the needs of the “truly indigent” the editorial goes on to call for yet more spending in the next legislature for “affordable housing.” First, aren’t the people living in tents on the beach “truly indigent” and the people towards this spending is targeted and second, why is always assumed that government can provide affordable housing better than the private sector can?

Isn’t the real problem here that developers have to jump through so many hoops and conform to so many regulations that the only way to build a profitable house here is to build expensive homes? The homes that the mayor and some many community leaders worked to save in Kahuku couldn’t be built today. And that is the real problem. The regulations of government force housing to be unaffordable.

As always there is an irony here. Using more tax money to have government build more affordable housing means that the rest of us are going to have to pay more taxes. As a result this will raise the cost of living for everyone making it even more difficult to live here and driving more into homelessness. The “solution” will have the unintended consequence of creating more of the same.

The real solution here is a careful scrutiny of the rules and regulations, the impact fees and other costs that prevent the building of affordable housing by private developers. Removing the onerous restrictions on the construction of new housing will be the only long term solution. Jettisoning the counter productive “smart growth” rules that make housing more expensive is also needed.

Finally, designating marginal unproductive lands as “agricultural lands” because some people want to preserve “open space” will assure that housing prices will continue to be unaffordable in these islands. At some point the residents here are going to have to choose between the islands being a playground of the wealthy or building affordable housing in places where no homes are now permitted at all.

No doubt there are those that would prefer that there be no further construction and that all those who don’t like it, or can’t afford it here, simply move away. The end result will be a two-tiered society where there will be the affluent and a permanent underclass. In that case homelessness will never go away. That will be the inevitable result of economics, heartless or not.

References:

http://tinyurl.com/r3ry7

http://tinyurl.com/lud3u

Don Newman, senior policy analyst for the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, Hawaii's first and only free market public policy institute focused on individual freedom and liberty, can be reached at mailto:don@grassrootinstitute.org