Coins Don't Change Anything

Coins Don't Change Anything

Do you know any artists that do political-based artwork? The first artist that most likely comes to mind if you live in Canada, the UK or the United States would probably be Banksy. Banksy is an artist who makes opinionated art based on social issues that we face. The particular piece of artwork that I'm going to be delving into is a piece of artwork by Banksy titled "street art” which is from the year 2004 that was made in Australia. The Imagine question is a painting on a wall that depicts a person wearing a Black hoodie and black pants With a white that looks like a paper cup in front of them. They are holding a white sign with red writing on it that states the following: “Keep your coins” and then in larger writing “I want to change”. The points of discussion with the information that we are given are going to be the following: what this image represents, how this connects to my own experiences, and the comparison in the amount of changes that we have seen socially and politically from when this image was created to now.

What does this image mean? This image based on both the time and what it depicts represents the rate of poverty and the homeless population throughout the world at this time. Just like many years before this and after this homelessness has increased. This is a commentary on the lack of resources and energy that is going towards managing this issue. My reasoning behind this specifically being a commentary on the issue of homelessness is the statement “Keep your coins I want to change”. This individual is homeless because it is a very common practice for people to give homeless individuals coins to help them financially. This statement is not only an acknowledgment that the coins themselves don't go a long way financially for that individual, it's also a statement of the fact that the government and the people around them are not putting in that much effort to change that situation that is happening. One of the key aspects of this commentary as well is that the money that they are being given is support. Well, they are homeless, and it is not supported to fix the situation of how they got put in a situation where they no longer have a safe place to sleep or live. The way that we manage homelessness is to do so little that it is nothing. I have never been homeless personally but I have seen that financial struggle in other families.

Homelessness isn't just caused solely by Financial struggle alone. There are so many other factors than just money going into homelessness. For example, I have heard of friends or people in my age group becoming homeless because they have run away from home because they don't have a good home life. Some individuals have become homeless for other things like mental health issues or drug addiction. Yes, these have a financial aspect to them but they are not the sole reason why those individuals are homeless. From my 18th short years on this Earth, I have learned that the financial state that we are in is not the only problem, it is the aspect that there is not proper mental health support, and there is rampant drug addiction. All of it is homelessness. A family friend lived with a roommate in a house that they were renting. She ended up moving out and shortly after that she relapsed; this resulted in her becoming homeless. She has lost everything. Drug addiction isn't a financial problem but it is a contributing factor to homelessness. Another scenario that I have seen in which people have become homeless is some of my friends that feel so uncomfortable in their own homes that they have run away from homes. If they did not have people to let them sleep over for the weekend or the week they would be considered homeless. My friends I don't mean people who are adults I mean people that are between the ages of 13 to 16. So in my experience, homelessness is a problem that is not fixed by just money. The problem has many other factors that are not being considered by the government or by the individuals the majority of the time who see homeless people.

The lack of support to prevent homelessness is insane. As a society we need to do more to help these individuals before they come home and become homeless, not after if we prevent homelessness then we prevent that stress we prevent that potential, and that heightened likelihood for drug addiction or more problems while they are living on the streets. We have support for people when they are homeless like the mustard seed and homeless shelters but we don't have enough rehabs to support the amount of people who are addicted to drugs and counseling and therapy isn't covered by a lot of job plans and if it is covered it is extremely limited. I meant that our policymakers cannot complain about the issues of homelessness if they have plans to prevent homelessness rather than shoving more money into individuals who are already homeless. Give them other supports To allow them to provide themselves with a safe place to sleep at night. The image that I am discussing was made in 2004 and you would expect some of these issues to maybe be solved in some capacity but they are not. They are only getting worse. We are in 2025 and the amount of homeless people is only increasing. This was never a 2004-specific issue; this has been an issue in our society for a long time. The world needs to change and I know this and somebody needs to do something but we can't change the world on our own. Politicians and the government need to do something about this rampant problem that is destroying lives and Families.