Homeless people

I'm subscribed to the website of The Advocate (.com), they recently featured an article, well, not an article; a series of photographs. The photographs were of gay, lesbian and transgendered people living on and off in homeless shelters. Of young people.

This kind of struck me. I also recently read something about the amount of teenage and young 'drifters'. Such a life would be unbearable for me, but apart from that - or perhaps partly because of it - it hurts a little inside that people do live out on the street. Especially cute young blond gay guys...
Apparently it was a photo-shoot, by Lucky Michaels [his blog]. The whole article is [here].
Personally, I don't see those kids scattered in the street begging for money. Perhaps they have alternative ways of getting it, like Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) did in his rough years in Desperate Housewives. Some of them will definitely be able to earn enough that way to get them off the street. But I assume they still have some sense of honour and risk-management.I used to give money to drifters. Now I regret every time I did. It's an easy way of, literally, buying-off a feeling of compassion, or perhaps even guilt. And I'm not helping them. Oscar Wilde said in his Soul of Man: They try to solve the problem of poverty, for instance, by keeping the poor alive; or, in the case of a very advanced school, by amusing the poor. This is correct. If people are unhappy with the way they are living life, they should rise up against what is keeping them there. Part of what is keeping them in the gutter, is the fact that people pity them and provide support to live in the gutter. When it is possible to live in the gutter, people are less motivated to get out of it. Sure I'm not eager to find dozens of dead clochards aside the streets, but I'm sure most - if not all - will never let it get that far. In the Netherlands, everyone has the right to either be in prison or receive a monthly government aid payment while looking for a job. This system seems simple enough, but it isn't for addicts or freedom-freaks. The addicts spend more money then they earn, they'll probably have to steal to keep up or do dirty jobs for the same purpose. The freedom-freaks are people who got stuck in the hippy era and usually dress alternatively (and sloppy) and are also officially homeless, but tend to create huts to live in. They seem like children who never got to build a tree-hut and now reclaim their lost youth. Sort of like Michael Jackson - but without the job and the money.I don't give money to drifters anymore, because I can't trust them, because they can legally get money from my tax euros and are polluting the image of our streets. They need to stop relying on money they receive begging for it and start a constructive course to realigning their lives with the system. Drifters are a problem, even in a supposed welfare state such as the Netherlands.

Of course our political construct is divided over what to do with drifters. As they are with every matter that is of any importance. God do I hate democracy...

Would that eliminate the potential for a future career in politics?