" Why don't the homeless work ? "

Just BEING homeless for any length of time will disable you mentally and physically for any available jobs . Drug addiction and alcoholism and untreated mental illness are just a black hole of hopelessness. Since when were jobs for the asking in the FOR PROFIT capitalist system ? If a capitalist cannot EXPLOIT you , he or she will certainly not hire you. Also , the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill decades ago was nothing less than a crime against humanity. Not everybody - even mentally and physically healthy individuals - are fit for rat race competitive capitalism . The Beat Generation got that right way back in the 1950s Writer Jack Kerouac was an inspired VOICE of the Beat Generation. In one of his early stories he called himself a SOCIALIST .