Is It OK to Give People Beggars Money?

Back from the Caribbean with a radiant glow, Jonah is joined by Stephen Eide—senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute—for an outrageously wonky discussion of homelessness in America. The two kick things off by exploring the history of transient labor and the categorical distinctions between hobos, tramps, and bums, before turning to the root causes of the growing homeless populations in big cities. They also explore the relationship between homelessness and changes to psychiatric health care, the loss of affordable housing in big cities, and the idea that homelessness is a natural outgrowth of late-stage capitalism.

Show Notes:

-Stephen’s page at the Manhattan Institute

-Stephen’s recent book, Homelessness in America: The History and Tragedy of an Intractable Social Problem

-Stephen: “Housing First’s Imperial Overreach”

-Stephen: “The Adams Homeless Deluge”

-Madness in the Streets: How Psychiatry and the Law Abandoned the Mentally Ill

-Sebastian Junger’s Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices