{"title":"Homelessness","authors":"K. Dowding","doi":"10.1332/policypress/9781529206388.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781529206388.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses the nature of homelessness from rough sleeping to lack of secure accommodation. It examines changing government policy over the past fifty years. Governments have got out of the business of building and renting low-cost houses, ended rent control, and pursued fiscal policies encouraging not only home ownership and second homes, but a new rentier class. Tax incentives encourage buying to let or even leaving property empty for investment purposes. This pushes up house prices, creating a generation who have little prospect of ever owning their own home. It has also created insecure and transient housing for the poor and a tranche of rough sleepers with no roof over their heads. The chapter investigates this process in the USA, UK and Australia, contrasting with a case study of how Finland has successfully dealt with its homelessness problem.","PeriodicalId":231393,"journal":{"name":"It's the Government, Stupid!","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128504726","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Obesity","authors":"K. Dowding","doi":"10.1332/policypress/9781529206388.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781529206388.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses the nature of obesity and body shape generally, and how they affect health. Looking at the USA, UK and Australia in particular, it suggests that there is indeed a growing obesity and health crisis in the western world. It finds the causes of this crisis in modern food manufacture as it has developed from the 1960s onwards, notably sugar, trans-fats and other additives in food. It argues that whilst people do have some responsibility for their choice of food and drink, they cannot be blamed for the obesity crisis. This is the fault of governments that allow food manufacturers to produce foods that we know, given our body chemistry and biology, appeal to us and will provide excess calories with low nutritional value. People can only be expected to reasonably choose from the menu available to them, and that menu is poor-quality food, illustrated most dramatically in the food deserts of the USA. The obesity crisis is a failure of government regulation.","PeriodicalId":231393,"journal":{"name":"It's the Government, Stupid!","volume":"44 5","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132442489","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}