I don’t want to turn BMG into a Massachusetts version of the History Channel, but the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities’ MassMoment for today was so irresistible, I have to share it. It shows where free market extremism can take one. On this day in 1786:
Malden’s selectmen put up for “vendue” Mary Degresha, who was unable to support herself. They auctioned her off to the lowest bidder, who agreed to accept payment of six dollars a week for housing and “taking proper care” of her. For two centuries, Massachusetts towns were responsible for supporting those who could not support themselves. Sometimes this meant providing necessities, such as clothing, firewood, or food. Other times, a household was compensated for taking in an indigent man, woman, or child. In the 1820s, a gradual shift began toward institutionalizing the poor in almshouses or workhouses. Early in the twentieth century, the state took over responsibility for the Commonwealth’s poorest citizens.
How do you think Massachusetts is doing on this issue, which can be one of life or death for many of our least fortunate brothers and sisters. Is it true that a society should be measured by how well it treats its poorest and most vulnerable?
What a proud heritage of which we can loudly boast.
Yes, in the bad old days indigent people were “auctioned” to homes rather than institutionalized. Later they were institutionalized. In the first case, the indigent probably knew the people of the household. In the second case, at least the people had a roof and food.
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Thanks to our rapid social progress, people are now free to live on the streets, in abandoned cars, some of them being sent to prisons where they can meet new and interesting people.
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The poor, the insane, the elderly soon will see the new phase of government care as the new work camps are implemented. The new management already has the technical manual. So our inmates can compete with China’s inmates. Wal-Mart wins!
The term was Overseers of the Poor and were typically the Board of Selectmen.
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I THINK this continued well into the 1950’s, but then Mass. decided to professionalize servies, so people got what the state told them they needed instead of what they actually needed.
The question of what must be done is probably complicated, but it’s one we aren’t even trying to come up with answers for – at least at the governmental level. Clearly, there’s more to be done and we’re just not doing it. It’s a difficult problem no one wants to touch because it’ll require a lot of money to make good progress, which will piss off a lot of citizens who are of the mind that homeless people deserve to be homeless. Thanklessly, most of those people probably live and stay in the suburbs and don’t have to deal with their conscience see them on a daily basis.