There are two models I know of for financing the provision of social services. One is to leave the responsibility of providing services up to private charities. The other is to provide public services.
When our governments fail to provide services, the burden of financing them is placed all on the shoulders of compassionate people and people who are not compassionate get a free ride enjoying the prosperity of a healthy society. That does not seem right or smart to me.
On the other hand when social services are public services, assuming the tax laws are mostly fair, both compassionate and non-compassionate people share the burden.
It is a fact there are homeless people on the streets and thousands living in poverty. Can we not wake up to the fact that the charity model is not doing the job because the compassionate people do not have the financial capacity to fund services to a reasonable level?
Public money invested in public social services reaps a huge savings 20 years in the future. More than just making long term economic sense it will bring us the pleasure of living in a loving society.
Technically I guess there is one more model; the public private partnership. Probably the worst model, publicly funded but not publicly regulated.
