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I mean yeah, it’s a glib portrayal but I don’t think it’s wrong to present it this way. It’s a fact that a few of America’s most wealthy have enough money to house every homeless person in the US, with enough to spare to keep themselves in megayachts and luxury Texan compounds. It drives home the massive wealth inequality.

It also really isn’t infeasible to build enough homes to house all the homeless in the US within one or two years. It’s not infeasible to spend that same amount of time setting up universal basic income and healthcare. Those three things are achievable and would make a positive, life-long difference to the majority of people experiencing homelessness.

And there are a handful of people in the US whose combined personal wealth could easily fund all that.

Homelessness encompasses far more than rough sleeping. I agree that there are issues that many homeless people may face that wouldn’t be resolved just by giving them a roof over their head. But it’d be a great start. And don’t forget, a lot of homelessness is people and families in temporary or crisis housing, or couch surfing with friends and family, because they can’t afford a place of their own.

What does it matter about the exact dollar amount? The top 3 wealthiest people in the US could provide housing, sanitation and food for every single homeless person in the US and still be multi-billionaires. It doesn’t matter if the cost of tackling homelessness is $20bn or $200bn, it’s still a fact that a handful of people hoarde enough wealth that they could actually pay to house every single homeless person, and still have millions (if not billions) left over.

Yes, this is a trite example and doesn’t address the systemic failures in healthcare and education that are a major factor in people becoming homeless. But the wealth the ultra-rich hoarde could help with that too.

You know it’s okay to dress brightly, flamboyantly, dazzlingly and even fabulously too, right?

I had a music teacher who would read sheet music like this. He said he could hear it, and he prefered it to actually listening to a recording because his imagination was so much richer than what could be captured by a recording.

I thought it was amazing and really envied this ability.