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from the suppresion-of-the-proletariat dept.
Analysis of a study (PDF) carried by UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education shows that isn't the poor people won't work but the work they do can't sustain them. As a blog on WaPo puts it:
We often make assumptions about people on public assistance, about the woman in the checkout line with an EBT card, or the family who lives in public housing. [...] We assume, at our most skeptical, that poor people need help above all because they haven't tried to help themselves — they haven't bothered to find work.
The reality, though, is that a tremendous share of people who rely on government programs designed for the poor in fact work — they just don't make enough at it to cover their basic living expenses. According to the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, 73 percent of people who benefit from major public assistance programs in the U.S. live in a working family where at least one adult earns the household some money.
This picture casts the culprit in a different light: Taxpayers are spending a lot of money subsidizing not people who won't work, but industries that don't pay their workers a living wage. Through these four programs alone [food stamps, Medicaid, the Earned Income Tax Credit, income supports through welfare], federal and state governments spend about $150 billion a year aiding working families, according to the analysis (the authors define people who are working here as those who worked at least 10 hours a week, at least half the year).
The workers relying the most on social programs: Fast Food (52%), Home Care (48%), Child Care (46%) and Part-time college students (25%).
(Score: 2) by TK-421 on Wednesday April 15 2015, @05:07PM
You can't lay all of that blame at the feet of our education system. I am not sure if you are referring to university or primary. I am going to assume primary because university should not and is not for everybody. I see a lot of problems in our public education system. They have the primary goal (in my mind at least) of producing a young adult that can read the thoughts of others, assimilate them with their own thoughts, and express those thoughts back in a comprehensive way. This fails sometimes and for different reasons. The primary failure in my opinion is the lack of supportive partnership with the parents/guardians. I do not believe primary schooling should ever attempt to usurp parents/guardians but rather should partner with them.
The parents/guardians should be providing (to the best of their ability):
> a stable home with basic utilities
> structured meal times spent together as much as possible
> child care (when necessary) provided by healthy (mainly mental and chemically speaking) immediate family members
> the expectation that school is your equivalent to a job while growing up
> just like an employer checks up on your work, the parent/guardian will check up on your school work
Why is this absent for so many? It isn't a race issue, or a religious issue. It's a poverty issue. Poverty begets poverty. Once you are in it is very hard to get out. How would I get out? I would first fall back on family. If my parents were chemically and mentally healthy I would seek their assistance. If they were not an option I would move through my list of family until I found one. If I had no family I would reach out to friends. If framily were not an option I would seek out a good church that could partner with me. Say what you want but there ARE churches out there that spend the money they receive on helping those in need out of desperate situations. How do you find a good church? I can only answer for Christian churches, you find one that takes Matthew 25:31 seriously. If they look at you funny for mentioning it then keep walking. A good church can help you get out of bad situations on your way to a better place.
The educators should be providing (to the best of their ability)
> highly structured focus on math, science, literature, and verbal skills
> opportunity to make mistakes and learn in the process
> continued exposure to social interaction with the purpose of learning how to work within society
> opportunities to experience the arts
If either partner fails then the production of a prepared adult fails. Each partner must be prepared to push the other when necessary but this is largely one way. Educators have little to no power to get a failing parent to improve. If a kid shows up to school everyday having not eaten anything since the previous school lunch they surely won't be prepared to learn anything that day. So we get more social programs to provide free/reduced lunch which blossoms into breakfast and weekend meals. I hate the fact that schools have to spend money on such things but food/shelter/clothing always come before learning. Parenting failures, largely due to poverty, beget schooling failures.
I am running out of time for this post so I am going to make a bad segue here. If you know someone who is locked in that poverty cycle, try to partner with them (assuming you have a working relationship with them). Don't let yourself be abused, but do find ways to help that person or couple. Offer to let their kids come to your house, after school, if that couple has to work multiple jobs. Invite them to dinner a few nights a week so they can spend time with their kids (rather than spend time cooking a meal) so they can check homework and ask about school. Let that person or couple ask you questions about how you have handled tough situations. A hand up is always better than a hand out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 15 2015, @05:52PM
That's the compassionate conservatism [wikipedia.org] position: solve poverty through private charity. And it's what the US has at the moment, so I agree with donating and participating in charity efforts where possible, given the current political situation.
But it doesn't scale. The government does have some programs for helping the poor, but they could be better (see the basic income thread above). And employment regulations are broken as evidenced by the fact that they are encouraging this behavior, which is another direction that better government could help fix the problem of poverty.
(Score: 1) by Fauxlosopher on Thursday April 16 2015, @01:22AM
Part of the reason private charity doesn't seem to scale in the USA is because the governments within the USA have been unlawfully taking on the role as a dispenser of charity. If one of the local homeless shelters you chose to send funds to has turned into a crack house, you have the option to stop giving them your funds. This is NOT the general case with government charity, as the monies used have been obtained with taxation/theft, and if you try to stop funding the government anyway, conventional wisdom dictates that you are courting personal disaster.
Tally up the total you (presumably as a productive, relatively self-supporting individual) pay in taxes and government-imposed fees. The easily visible taxes should total 50% or more of your gross compensation. That alone should indicate that, absent such harsh demands on your productive capacity, private charity should indeed be a viable solution, as it was indeed for much of human history.
(Score: 2) by dry on Friday April 17 2015, @04:57AM
Your idea was tried in early 19th century Britain and it didn't workout too well for the poor, read your Dickens. Your biggest error is thinking that without taxes you'd be 50% richer when in reality most wages would drop by close to 50% and the various fees that would be needed to be paid would sky rocket as they would be paid to private enterprises who are only interested in increasing profits.
(Score: 1) by Fauxlosopher on Saturday April 18 2015, @03:27AM
Remind me: which Dickens titles involved a governmental system that treated humans like self-owning individuals rather than little better than chattel property?
Your criticism of the potentially inefficient or insufficient ways free individuals might choose to treat private charities is the functional equivalent of saying that American slaves were better off in forced bondage, 'cause they'd be unable to take care of themselves otherwise.
The potential downsides of freedom do not matter - neither you nor the US government has lawful authority to resort to any flavor of slavery.