Time and again, yes.
Like, just off the top of my head was DeSantis’ human trafficking stunt a couple years back. The one where he sent like 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in a PR stunt. The entire thing cost like $12 million from Florida taxes alone, plus whatever expenses the residents/authorities of Massachusetts had to incur to handle them.
$12 million minimum for 50 people. That’s $240k per person. You legit could’ve just given them that money, and it would’ve been an investment as the money spend gets circulated through the community, as well as seeing some of it return off the taxes from them spending it. Instead DeSantis blew a $12 million hole into Florida’s budget just to kick off a failed run for president. Shit, does anyone here or do any of the lurkers reading this make $240k a year? Yeah, let that sink in for a moment.
As another example, a few years back it cost an average of like $80 to spend a night in jail. Not counting other expenses like labor or resources from the police, just like $80 to house and feed an arrestee. Well jailing the homeless for vagrancy is a popular way to deal with said homeless. What’s the point here? Looking at hotels in my area today, after years of inflation, an average room also costs $80 now. Motels in my area go anywhere from $20 to $60 a night.
It would legit be cheaper to just pay for an apartment for every homeless person than to arrest them, but instead we spend more for less results.
Yes our systems are so ass backwards that it is legit cheaper to just give money away than to keep going as we currently are.
