How about just doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do? This week I have been reading about homelessness and its associated healthcare costs. According to Dr. Andrew Boozary, a primary care physician practicing social medicine in Toronto, "The life expectancy for people surviving homelessness is half that of the general public." For me this should be the primary factor driving us as Humans to work toward resolution. Half the normal lifespan! Instead, (from my small sampling), there appear to be a disproportionate number of quotes citing cost factors. And I suppose it is helpful that (according to Kaiser Health News), "Many hospitals realize it's cheaper to provide a month of housing than to keep patients for a single night," but shouldn’t we be focused on healthcare sans cost?

Here are some additional examples including from hospitals considering and/or implementing housing options:

• According to California Healthline, one analysis “showed that people with stable housing cost taxpayers 79 percent less than their homeless counterparts, and most of the savings were in health care.”
• Again, according to Kaiser Health News, “It costs Denver Health $2,700 a night to keep someone in the hospital. Patients who are prime candidates for the transitional [housing] units stay [instead, in the hospital] on average 73 days, for a total cost to the hospital of nearly $200,000. The hospital estimates it would cost a fraction of that, about $10,000, to house a patient for a year.”
• And according to one hospital’s chief financial officer, “We might be able to help better their lives, as well as help the financials of the hospital.”

On the one hand we “might” help the homeless – on the other we ‘will’ help the hospital's financials. The priority is clear. But why must we justify? It is because this is how we have to talk to those in powerful decision-making positions. It is like reasoning with a child who only knows they want to stay up late and eat too many sweets and cannot see ahead to the potential consequences. Our subservience to the bottom line and our predilection for pretentiousness has us trapped in this cycle of childish short-term thinking that will only continue to bring us around, again and again, to blissful justification. Justification is not Justice, and Justice is becoming more and more necessary for survival.

Recently, I drew a line from Indulgence that forked to Passion and Cruelty. From Passion it traveled on to Justice and from Cruelty to Division. Because I am Human, Passion and Cruelty (from indulgence) are (in practice) inseparable; Siamese twins. When my inclination or desire leans toward Humanity as one, I will come closer to Justice. When my hand is heavy with myself or my cohort, I am more likely to divide and fall back on certainty, convention, and bureaucracy. So to enhance / encourage Justice I must build on Beauty, Truth and Wisdom and carefully guide my inclinations and desires away from self-interest and entitlement, and toward a passion for the future of all Humanity as one. And until we improve in this regard, our trajectory will not change.

As a Human I don't believe there is a simple, straightforward, applicable definition for Justice. Objectively, (perhaps) it begins with empathy minus self-interest and entitlement. From there, (I believe) it must include serious consideration for all future generations, which in most cases will also help reduce self-interest and entitlement. On our current trajectory, as justice is practiced today, (i.e. divisive cruelty), I see an endless march, into future generations, of homeless Humans all living half a normal lifespan. And on our current trajectory, the numbers will continue to grow. And this does not bode well for our survival.

So…

How about just doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do?