Palm Springs, California has decided to give transgendered people, below the poverty line, $900/month just for getting up in the morning. Actually, the transgendered people do not have to get up in the morning. The article’s author opines that “This is, of course, highly discriminatory and I doubt very seriously will stand up once the litigation gets rolling.”
The details of the Palm Springs policy show that the policy does not add up to yield a coherent and transparent result. Rather, analyzing the details lead to the ineluctable conclusion that the entire program is intended to enrich selected individuals and their advocacy groups. The income distribution scheme provides that “Twenty transgender and nonbinary Palm Springs residents will receive the free money funded by the taxpayers for 18 months, with advocacy-based health center DAP Health and LGBT advocacy group Queer Works managing the program.”
The program enables the municipal government to fund “DAP Health” and “Queer Works.” The article discusses a $200K set aside by the municipal government for the program. Do the math. Twenty people, 18 months, $900 a month adds up to $324K. The article does not say where the other $124K will come from, nor the management fees these two organizations will undoubtedly collect for this “public service.” However, the links to the interest groups and the bureaucrats have been established; budgets have been planned and expectations have been created. People are now invested in the existence and funding of the program. And invested in the continued funding of the program.
The selections for qualifying for the program is ripe for corruption and self-dealing. Medical professionals and bureaucrats in ideological harmony with the program’s concept will legitimize the program. Others will simply be corrupted, quite willingly. Which raises the issue of the application of the most fundamental law of all fundamental laws of human behavior: subsidize something and you will get more of it. Tax something and you will get less of it.
The program’s free money will encourage more transgenderism and non-binary self-identification. This will be easy because the status of being ‘transgender’ and ‘non-binary’ eludes precise evaluation and is somewhat evanescent: it changes. Thus, the program will be expanded in scope to accommodate the increased demand coupled with the self interest of the advocacy groups and the bureaucrats with an ideological affinity. Free money, elusive criteria for becoming a beneficiary, ideological fervor and political calculating: this Palm Springs program has it all. Only the taxpayer suffers.
