Poverty levels and handouts have largely become a large problem here in the US. I don't feel as though links to info on this subject are necessary, but what if we could do something about it?
Why not require (through law somehow, if possible) all corporations that are publicly traded on wall street and have profits over a certain limit (lets over 1 billion) to donate a portion of every dollar after that ( say .5% or 1% or something else entirely) to a fund that has completely transparent books, and is run by a board of trustees that are voted on by the public and have guaranteed jail time for theft/embezzlement.
This board would oversee the funds strictly for the use of buying building materials for building/repairing homes in the poverty areas and providing said materials directly to homes in need all over the US (think ghettos, not aimed at race here just the problem). Now you may ask who is going to do all the work?
The people living in those places, allow them to have access to all the materials they need free of charge and make them do the work and create appreciation in the process. Allow them to in turn for doing it themselves be further rewarded and pay off the house to whoever owns it and give them the deed to the land and house.
The idea is obviously not fully thought out and in need of lots of scrutiny before being adopted for actual use, but I am curious of what people think of the idea. IMHO I believe that it is ultimately humans duty to help another human in need. But I also believe in hard work and not getting handouts forever. It was just something I thought about the other night. I think that in order to help the poverty and crime problem we have to come up with something new, because whatever we are doing now is failing bad.
Please do NOT start any political, religious, racism, etc. talk in this thread. Keep it civil and don't call people names, etc etc.