A Penny For Your Life? Survival Costs In A Land No Longer Free

By
staff
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In a newspaper picture of poor contrast, sleepers can be seen propped up or prone in a row of coffin-like beds
England: A Row of Four-Penny Coffins, photographed 19 June 1906 photo by unknown is in the public domain in the United States
A row of coffin-like sleeping beds that were rented for the night in 1906.

How quickly civilization fades in a deteriorating empire. Only a few decades ago, arguably the greatest country in the world could imagine a civilization without slums. To achieve it, a massive investment in slum clearance and homebuilding aimed to make that dream come true.

Now, some of its states have literally abolished individual freedom. Poor? You are no longer permitted to avail yourself of the great outdoors (except in daytime). Your choices to replenish your energy that comes from nightly sleep? For one penny, sit up indoors on a bench. For 4 pennies, spend the night lying down indoors in a ‘coffin.’

Those are figures from 19th century Britain, where similar bans on sleeping outdoors once existed1. We might waste our time calculating today’s inflationary charge for sleeping on a bench/in a coffin, but since no entrepreneurs have yet seen fit to develop such a service, it’s an academic exercise. Not so academic, however for the growing numbers of people who cannot afford to sleep indoors and are banned from sleeping outdoors.

Once again, how does such a great country come to this? Read/listen to some of the consequences of such measures at MARKETPLACE: As homelessness rises, some states make it illegal to sleep outside

Footnotes

  1. The 1824 Vagrancy Act, which banned sleeping outdoors, has been repealed. However, Britain’s housing minister has been given the authority to ban rough sleeping. Try: The Despicable UK Criminal Habit of ‘Vagrancy’ a.k.a. Homelessness