People were talking about it during Reagan’s Presidency.
There were giant homeless encampments in all major cities throughout the 1980s.
Read Hunter Thompson’s book “Hell’s Angels.” There’s a chapter that talks about the economics of being a biker/hippie/artist circa 1970. A part time waitress in New York could afford to support herself and her musician boyfreind. A biker could put in six months as a Union stevedore and make enough to hit the road for two years of carousing.
And the idea that Obama caused the melt down of 2008 is pretty hilarious.