VIVEK RAMASWAMY: The human suffering in our cities is a symptom of deep cultural rot. Here’s how I plan to fix it.

The first step is to stop incentivizing people to do the very things we don’t want them to do. If we want people to work, then stop paying them not to work. If we want people to be clean and sober, then stop handing out needles and crack pipes. Enabling destructive behavior is not compassionate. Do we really think handing out kits packed with Pyrex crack pipes, metal pipe screens, mouthpieces, lip balm, alcohol swabs, lighters, chewing gum, and condoms, is the way to help people get back on their feet?

This is insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting something other than citizens transforming into tranq-doped zombies right before our eyes, or playing hopscotch over used needles to avoid getting stuck, or watching people sweep the sidewalk in front of tent camps under the deafening and disorienting sound of SEPTA trains overhead is the very definition of insanity. The people I met in Kensington deserve better.

The extreme permissiveness in areas such as Kensington not only drives up the number of homeless and addicts, but it also incentivizes the very behaviors we don’t want to replicate in our country. And for those who might think their families are immune from such suffering, as a mother who lost her child to fentanyl poisoning told me, if we don’t fix this problem, your child is next.

Much more at the link.