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Originally Posted by aigel
If you push them out of one place, they will move to another. Not sure what the solution is.
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You know, the marketing industry in this country can sell ice cubes to Eskimos, and easily convince the rest of us to spend our hard-earned money to buy stuff that we didn't even know we needed. And with social media and data mining now at their disposal, their powers of persuasion are stronger than ever. Why can't these powerful tools be used to urge people to be responsible parents and to raise their children to become productive members of society? In other words, try to prevent people from falling by the wayside in the first place, instead of just throwing money at the problem after the fact. I realize that this would require a cooperative effort on the part of the government and the media, but even if moderately sucessful, it might be able to pay for itself with the savings in social welfare payouts further down the line. There have been successful campaigns used to convince people to stop smoking, to wear seat belts, to recycle trash, etc. Current campaigns are running to get people to quit texting while driving and to stop bullying among children. There's an orginazation called The Ad Council that's already partnering with advertising and government agencies, as well as with the private sector, to bring these messages to the public. If this effort could be stepped up, with positive messages presented in prime time and thru social media, the problems of homelessness and dependency might be significantly reduced.