The United States has experienced a 12% increase in homelessness. Federal officials pointed to soaring rents and a winding down of pandemic aid for housing.
People who can't pay fines end up in prison. The prison industrial complex in the US is one of the most profitable systems they have. This isn't just empty "punish the poors" rhetoric, it's designed to push more slave labour.
And unlike the great depression they aren't even allowing fucking shanty towns to pop up, so at what points does the water break and will it likely be in the form of some type of horrid neo-fascist backklash offering the only alternative?