Occasionally, Government Does Actually Help Ppl

Interesting story from The New York Times.

We know New York has been finding ways to deal with its terminal problem with homelessness for a while now. Apparently, they've looked at the annual costs of housing a family at a shelter and decided that it's just easier to send ppl back to wherever they've come from.

It doesn't matter where in the world you want to go. If you find a relative or someone who will let you stay with them, the city of New York will pay your transportation costs to get there. One particular family mentioned in the story arrived in NYC and found the differences to be too much. It's easy to get turned off by the crowdedness, the subway system, expensive housing, difficulty finding a job - what have you. So if the city verifies that you have somewhere else you'd like to go, bon voyage! They'll send you on a one-way trip. One family of five received plane tickets to France, then train tix to the city where the grandparents lived. The city picked up the $6,332 tab. Another family received like $400 in gas cards to drive back to Michigan.

Why keep these ppl on public assistance and pay to feed them house them, etc when they can just go somewhere else and try to find a better living? NYC isn't the only place you can find the American Dream....

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/nyregion/29oneway.html?th&emc=th