SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Study: Public Assistance Programs Lessen Poverty
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 100 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
If bankers can count, how come they have eight windows and only four tellers?
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday May 29 2018, @03:42PM (3 children)
The fundamental flaw with antipoverty programs including UBI is they grossly underestimate the ingenuity of poor people in making terrible decisions. My prediction is that UBI would be a huge boon to the tote-the-note car industry as people took their newfound income and immediately converted it to debt. This would leave them just as broke as they were before, but with a slightly nicer car to have repossessed.
I'm in favor of a UBI replacement for the mishmash of different programs we have now, but I'm a clear-eyed pessimist in predicting there is zero chance it will meaningfully raise the standard of living of the poor in America today.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday May 29 2018, @10:22PM
Maybe UBI should be distributed in form of food/clothes stamps. As for the smartphone, you can clean up three backyards a month and afford one.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 29 2018, @11:42PM
Financial literacy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_literacy [wikipedia.org]
https://wol.iza.org/articles/the-value-of-financial-literacy-and-financial-education-for-workers/long [iza.org]
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday May 30 2018, @04:36PM
My apologies to the moderator, I hadn't intended the above as flamebait. I'm referring to a pair of specific incidents that demonstrate my point. I have two broke friends that qualify for SNAP. The first went > $15,000 into debt for a vehicle so they can Uber and make less than minimum wage. The second just traded a paid-for car for a newer one, going $6,000 in debt, because the old car needed tires and brakes.
The cash value, the price you could buy the cars for from an individual seller, was $8,000 and $2,500 respectively. With history as a guide, there is a 50% chance that one of the two will be repossessed in under two years.
Predatory "tote-the-note" lending is an epidemic in poor communities.