Since 2012, the American tech industry has demonstrated a strange and often controversial fascination with homelessness. A Seattle businessman, for example, was charging people $2,000 to see how homeless people live last October. In New York, a software engineer offered a homeless man a choice between $100 and daily, hour-long programming classes. At Dissent Magazine, Atossa Araxia Abrahamian discusses how these anecdotes “position homeless people as stand-ins for pre-societal savages” and why this can be a problem. The full story provides a measured takedown of Silicon Valley’s “high-tech civilizing missions” and a reminder that teaching homeless people how to code doesn’t liberate society from its responsibilities.
Programming lessons probably won’t solve homelessness
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