Gautam Mukunda wrote:
>
> I'm afraid you're misremembering this one, Doug.
You are correct. I misoverestimated my memory. 8^)
The policy was first
> pioneered under JFK and fully carried out by Carter. Reagan had
> nothing to do with it, and conservatives, in fact, fought the
> policy from its very inception. The idea behind it was
> _compassionate_, not cost-efficient. Supposedly these people
> would be taken care of more humanely on the outside by their
> families and so on. Conservatives, having a slightly darker
> view of the world, pointd out: 1. If their families were
> willing to do that, they wouldn't be institutionalized in the
> first place and 2. Releasing lots of people who were completely
> unable to take care of themselves and of dubious rationality
> unsupervised into society would probably have bad effects on
> society.
>
> They were not listened to. The modern problem of homelessness
> is a quite direct result (well, that and rent control, another
> astonishingly stupid policy that even most liberals have given
> up on at this point, but that was, again, a "compassionate"
> policy fought from its inception by the right and pushed
> through by the left). Deinstitutionalization would mainly be a
Carter and Co. policy. Reagan had nothing to do with it.
Except, of course, that he was in some degree responsible for the
implementation of a policy mandated by his predicessor.
--
Doug
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.zo.com/~brighto
"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the
fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first
existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the
higher consideration." A. Lincoln's First Annual Message to
Congress, December 3, 1861.
