Albert Einstein once elegantly said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. This adage comes to mind when we see that, once again, work requirements are being used as a club to combat Americans living in poverty who need safety net programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). ), housing assistance from HUD, and if President Trump has his way, even Medicaid.
The White House Council of Economic Advisers has recommended work requirements for the most extensive welfare programs, and the current administration has ordered federal agencies to modify their presumably lax standards for welfare programs. These movements are based on the continuing belief that the poor are a drain on federal resources because of their laziness, recklessness, and lack of ambition. So here we go again, concluding that the poor are poor solely because of their own poor behavior and must be made to work harder to receive help from this government.
It is not so simple.
Is this work requirement approach fair in that aid recipients (excluding children, the elderly and the disabled) must show an attempt to win government support, which supposedly incentivizes people not to be poor, or is this a kick to the poor and disenfranchised when they are already down?
A few points about welfare work requirements are worth examining:
1. According to the US Census Bureau, the 2017 poverty rate was 12.3%, a decrease of 0.4% from the previous year. Since 2014 the poverty rate has fallen by 2.5%. So if the current trend line is a declining poverty rate, why is such a harsh condition like work requirements for the poor necessary at this time?
2. This effort was last tested under Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich with their 1996 welfare reform legislation. We’ve had a couple of decades to see how that has played out and studies like the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and in the book Making ends meet (Edin and Lein) show that despite short-term marginal improvements in employment, they were not sustainable, mainly due to increased and necessary living expenses absorbing any financial gains generated by work.
3. Where are these jobs that the poor are supposed to get? If you have spent most of your life in poverty, the chances that you will be able to get a job in the knowledge economy are pretty low quickly. We’ve all heard how traditional manual jobs are dying out, so what’s left? Low-paid part-time jobs with unpredictable and changing hours are what remain.
4. If the government feels the need to pick on someone, shouldn’t it be the employers of vast numbers of unskilled and low-skilled people who pay their workers, including the working poor, insufficient wages which in turn must be underwritten? by the Americans? tax payment?
Now, one place where there could be political agreement is for the government to provide subsidized high-quality job training requirements aimed at actually helping the poor gain the knowledge and skills needed for a globalized, digitized economy. Currently, training requirements can replace job requirements, but their effectiveness remains questionable.
The causes and cures for poverty are varied, complex, and far beyond the scope of this article. But if we, as a society, are truly interested in improving the condition of poverty (as we should be!), we must look for demonstrably beneficial interventions that measurably make a positive difference. Requiring the poor to get a low-level job that drives up childcare and transportation costs just to show they’re not exploiting the system or making them pay for a hand from those of us with the means to pay taxes is not a humane way of do it
No Comment