I spoke to a group of students at Duke recently and somehow we got onto the subject of incentives and disincentives. One example I used was dealing with panhandlers. About 20 years ago I came to the conclusion that being rude to panhandlers was the best way to deal with them. They were aghast. How could I be so mean? For years I had just politely said, “No,” when approached. But after a panhandler began cursing at me and my three children at the Durham Public Library some years ago I decided that making it unpleasant for these moochers was actually in their best interests. If everyone did it, they’d a) get a job, or b) go somewhere else.
Liberals, like those in Chapel Hill, don’t understand incentives and disincentives. They have enabled panhandlers for years, even moving their homeless shelter to the middle of town so everyone could share the pain. Now they’ve got a real problem. Franklin Street is worse than San Francisco before that city cracked down on their deadbeats. But instead of making it uncomfortable for panhandlers, Chapel Hill proposes more enabling. Instead of telling panhandlers to get the heck out of town they’re proposing to provide lighting and signage to tell normal people how to avoid these moochers. One proposal is to provide them housing. Yeah, that’s the way to get rid of them.
