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Study: Public Assistance Programs Lessen Poverty

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday May 29 2018, @07:39AM   Printer-friendly
from the at-what-cost dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Yahoo Finance reports

Poverty-alleviation programs like food stamps (SNAP), Social Security, and other "welfare" programs are broadly effective at reducing poverty, a new study from University of Chicago researchers found.

The study, performed by researchers Bruce Meyer and Derek Wu, conducted a more comprehensive analysis than most studies, because it used administrative data from the programs' payment records, not just survey data of recipients from the Census Bureau.

[...] For the elderly, Wu said the research found that Social Security benefits "single-handedly slashes poverty by 75%." Social Security's overall effect on all poverty is also enormous, responsible for by far the largest poverty reduction among all these programs, the study said.

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  • (Score: 2) by coolgopher on Tuesday May 29 2018, @01:19PM (5 children)

    by coolgopher (1157) on Tuesday May 29 2018, @01:19PM (#685571)

    Oh no, there's a far more likely alternative than UBI as far as I can see.

    It will start with civil unrest from the destitute, move on to all-out uprisings and civil wars, causing ever increasing refugee streams, which put other countries' resources under unsustainable pressure, causing their populace to rise up, spreading the damage further and further. The resulting mayhem will cause severe food shortages, causing certain countries to seize the only remaining option - military annexation of remaining agricultural areas, regardless of national borders, prompting full-on wars until that too becomes impossible from the food & resource shortage. At the end of this shit-storm the human population will have been reduced to something that's actually sustainable, and there'll be no shortage of hard work for everyone.

    You know, I hope I'm wrong, but when it comes to humanity at large, I'm still betting on greed and screwing over "the small people". Oh, and on Musk getting to Mars.

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  • (Score: 2) by Subsentient on Tuesday May 29 2018, @01:28PM (1 child)

    by Subsentient (1111) on Tuesday May 29 2018, @01:28PM (#685576) Homepage Journal

    Likely? Yes. Favorable? No. The whole point of UBI is to produce a more favorable outcome, of course. :^)

    --
    "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti

    • (Score: 2) by coolgopher on Tuesday May 29 2018, @01:53PM

      by coolgopher (1157) on Tuesday May 29 2018, @01:53PM (#685596)

      Given the prevalence of Greed, Greed & Greed, Inc. I only see UBI as hastening the process.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 29 2018, @02:13PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 29 2018, @02:13PM (#685608)

    How can there in the end be no shortage of hard work for everyone if we start with the premise that all the hard work is eliminated as too expensive?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 29 2018, @04:14PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 29 2018, @04:14PM (#685696)

    It will start with civil unrest from the destitute, move on to all-out uprisings and civil wars, causing ever increasing refugee streams, which put other countries' resources under unsustainable pressure, causing their populace to rise up, spreading the damage further and further. The resulting mayhem will cause severe food shortages, causing certain countries to seize the only remaining option - military annexation of remaining agricultural areas, regardless of national borders, prompting full-on wars until that too becomes impossible from the food & resource shortage.

    You speak of this as though it is coming some time in the future. There are some who note that today we have the largest population of refugees in the world since WWII. [rescue.org]

    At the end of this shit-storm the human population will have been reduced to something that's actually sustainable, and there'll be no shortage of hard work for everyone.

    Yeah, culling the herd tends to do that. Pretty nasty for those who have to endure it, though.

    • (Score: 2) by coolgopher on Wednesday May 30 2018, @06:23AM

      by coolgopher (1157) on Wednesday May 30 2018, @06:23AM (#686133)

      You ain't seen nothin' yet.

      And well, it's pretty nasty for those who don't live to endure the aftermath too...