{"id":21252,"date":"2023-05-06T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2023-05-06T13:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=21252"},"modified":"2023-05-04T15:22:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T19:22:11","slug":"capitalism-killed-jordan-neely-a-homeless-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/capitalism-killed-jordan-neely-a-homeless-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitalism Killed Jordan Neely, a Homeless Man"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

The 24-year-old man who choked Jordan Neely to death thought to kill Neely before he thought to provide him with food or water, or the money needed to get those things.<\/span><\/p>\n

While it may be mind-boggling for the people on that train \u2013 or any train or street in America \u2013 to realize, the obvious thing they should have done is give Neely food, water, or money. It’s that simple.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, they defended the societal norm to the death. The norm that you don’t give food, water, or money to\u00a0<\/span>panhandlers<\/span><\/a>. The norm that anyone asking for those things is in the wrong. That money only comes when it is hard-earned, and that we don’t share our hard-earned money with strangers \u2013 or even close family members \u2013 who need it because then we’re just enabling them to fail at life.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is\u00a0capitalism<\/a>.<\/h4>\n

You have the right to use your talents to pursue making money, and then that money is YOURS; no matter how dire the situation is for someone else, no matter how insignificant giving a bit of it away might be, you don’t give it up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some people are too greedy to give it up. Others, and perhaps many of the people on Neely’s train, are just following a norm. They wouldn’t mind giving up some money if they really thought about it. But they don’t because it would look weird \u2013 it’s a conformity issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you are a good person, which most people are, and you have enough money, there is no way you pass someone who is desperate on the street without giving them money unless you have justified it in your mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea that all men and women are created equal is part of our societal ideology in this country. The problem is the belief that we are created equal, but that if you end up in a position where you’re begging, you’re somehow less than equal.<\/span><\/p>\n

That is how not giving up money is justified. That is how the murder of Jordan Neely is justified.<\/h4>\n

How many times do we have to write it here: participating in “traditional capitalistic forms of grind,” as National Homelessness Law Center Board Member Khadijah Williams\u00a0<\/span>put it<\/span><\/a>, does not make you a better person than someone who doesn’t. You are no more kind or loving or even more talented. (Talent is universal \u2013 it’s just that not all of our talents align with a path leading to payment in our current society.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Whatever you think inherently separates you from someone who is unhoused or having a mental health crisis, I promise you it doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Dana White (@ItsDanaWhite) May 3, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n