To The Editor:

A July 21 letter to the editor provided definitions of Marxism, communism, socialism, and capitalism and asked readers to, “decide under which form of government you prefer to live.” America is a mixture of capitalism and socialism. We have private property and freedom in the use of capital, but also government intervention for the public good.

Examples of socialism in America include the military, courts, law enforcement, fire departments, public schools, highways, libraries, parks, and laws against child labor, etc. Other examples are social welfare (e.g. “food stamps”) and corporate welfare (e.g. bailing out Wall Street in 2008, multiple bailouts of the auto industry and agricultural subsidies, portrayed as helping independent farmers but giving more to agribusiness corporations). So we don’t need to choose between capitalism and socialism, but we can have opinions about how much of each we like and vote accordingly.

A July 16 letter to the editor stated that “Churches and religious organizations did a very responsible and economic job of doing that (charity) . . . and since the government took over . . . costs to run government charities has skyrocketed. Yet there is no improvement for the poor or homeless.”

I can report that in the 18 counties of southwest Minnesota, homelessness is down 56% since 2014. The Jan. 22, 2020 Point-in-Time homelessness count found 55 adults and 24 children in emergency shelter in Southwest Minnesota. We have ended veteran and chronic homelessness. The average episode of homelessness in southwest Minnesota is 33 days. This is the result of collaboration among government agencies (e.g. U.S. Housing and Urban Development, MN Housing Finance Agency, local governments, law enforcement, and county social workers), private philanthropic foundations, non-profit agencies (e.g. the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, Community Action agencies, mental health and domestic violence service providers), for-profit housing developers (taking advantage of government low-income housing tax credits), churches and religious organizations (e.g. the Salvation Army, Lutheran Social Services, and multiple churches and ministerial associations), individual volunteers, and, last but not least, those who worked their way out of homelessness.

We will soon be faced with an eviction crisis due to COVID 19 and the ensuing economic downturn. Let us continue to collaborate to address this.

Justin Vorbach

Marshall

— Justin Vorbach is the coordinator for the Southwest Minnesota Continuum of Care