On the Right, weve known all along that the welfare system is not only fraudulent in principle, but debilitating for those who participate. Now, inveterate Liberal NYTimes writere Nicholas Kristof adds his degree of exactitude.
I challenge any who read this not to feel the pain in their hearts; Progressives will not admit the truth.
The take-away is that much of the solution is what conservatives have been saying for decades.
1. THIS is what poverty sometimes looks like in America: parents here in Appalachian hill country pulling their children out of literacy classes. Moms and dads fear that if kids learn to read, they are less likely to qualify for a monthly check for having an intellectual disability . the Supplemental Security Income program .
a. About four decades ago, most of the children S.S.I. covered had severe physical handicaps or mental retardation that made it difficult for parents to hold jobs about 1 percent of all poor children. But now 55 percent of the disabilities it covers are fuzzier intellectual disabilities short of mental retardation, where the diagnosis is less clear-cut. More than 1.2 million children across America a full 8 percent of all low-income children are now enrolled in S.S.I. as disabled, at an annual cost of more than $9 billion.
b. That is a burden on taxpayers, of course, but it can be even worse for children whose families have a huge stake in their failing in school . condemned to a life of poverty on the dole and thats the outcome of a program intended to fight poverty.
c. But the bottom line is that we shouldnt try to fight poverty with a program that sometimes perpetuates it.
2. This is painful for a liberal to admit, but conservatives have a point when they suggest that Americas safety net can sometimes entangle people in a soul-crushing dependency.
3. Some young people here dont join the military (a traditional escape route for poor, rural Americans) because its easier to rely on food stamps and disability payments.
4. Antipoverty programs also discourage marriage: In a means-tested program like S.S.I., a woman raising a child may receive a bigger check if she refrains from marrying that hard-working guy she likes. Yet marriage is one of the best forces to blunt poverty. In married couple households only one child in 10 grows up in poverty, while almost half do in single-mother households.
5. The greatest challenge we face as educators is how to break that dependency on government. a tentative lesson from the field is that while we need safety nets, the focus should be instead on creating opportunity
6. I dont want to suggest that Americas antipoverty programs are a total failure. On the contrary, they are making a significant difference. Nearly all homes here in the Appalachian hill country now have electricity and running water, and people arent starving.
7. Our political system has created a particularly robust safety net for the elderly, focused on Social Security and Medicare because the elderly vote. This safety net has brought down the poverty rate among the elderly from about 35 percent in 1959 to under 9 percent today.
8. Of American families living in poverty today, 8 out of 10 have air-conditioning, and a majority have a washing machine and dryer. Nearly all have microwave ovens. What they dont have is hope.
9. A growing body of careful research suggests that the most effective strategy is to work early on children and education, and to try to encourage and sustain marriage.
10. I dont want to write anybody off, but I admit that efforts to help Ms. McCormick may end with a mixed record. But those twin boys shes carrying? Theres time to transform their lives, and they and millions like them should be a national priority. Theyre too small to fail. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/o...d=2&adxnnlx=1355241766-9YB8/+T5s0YnaFOVSnoFHg
I suggest that those in charge are not oblivious to the solutions suggested in Kristof's piece....so the perceptive on the Left, many of whom made the mistaken votes in the election, should ask themselves why they've been lied to.
And...perhaps....ask why this article wasn't printed prior to the election.....
I challenge any who read this not to feel the pain in their hearts; Progressives will not admit the truth.
The take-away is that much of the solution is what conservatives have been saying for decades.
1. THIS is what poverty sometimes looks like in America: parents here in Appalachian hill country pulling their children out of literacy classes. Moms and dads fear that if kids learn to read, they are less likely to qualify for a monthly check for having an intellectual disability . the Supplemental Security Income program .
a. About four decades ago, most of the children S.S.I. covered had severe physical handicaps or mental retardation that made it difficult for parents to hold jobs about 1 percent of all poor children. But now 55 percent of the disabilities it covers are fuzzier intellectual disabilities short of mental retardation, where the diagnosis is less clear-cut. More than 1.2 million children across America a full 8 percent of all low-income children are now enrolled in S.S.I. as disabled, at an annual cost of more than $9 billion.
b. That is a burden on taxpayers, of course, but it can be even worse for children whose families have a huge stake in their failing in school . condemned to a life of poverty on the dole and thats the outcome of a program intended to fight poverty.
c. But the bottom line is that we shouldnt try to fight poverty with a program that sometimes perpetuates it.
2. This is painful for a liberal to admit, but conservatives have a point when they suggest that Americas safety net can sometimes entangle people in a soul-crushing dependency.
3. Some young people here dont join the military (a traditional escape route for poor, rural Americans) because its easier to rely on food stamps and disability payments.
4. Antipoverty programs also discourage marriage: In a means-tested program like S.S.I., a woman raising a child may receive a bigger check if she refrains from marrying that hard-working guy she likes. Yet marriage is one of the best forces to blunt poverty. In married couple households only one child in 10 grows up in poverty, while almost half do in single-mother households.
5. The greatest challenge we face as educators is how to break that dependency on government. a tentative lesson from the field is that while we need safety nets, the focus should be instead on creating opportunity
6. I dont want to suggest that Americas antipoverty programs are a total failure. On the contrary, they are making a significant difference. Nearly all homes here in the Appalachian hill country now have electricity and running water, and people arent starving.
7. Our political system has created a particularly robust safety net for the elderly, focused on Social Security and Medicare because the elderly vote. This safety net has brought down the poverty rate among the elderly from about 35 percent in 1959 to under 9 percent today.
8. Of American families living in poverty today, 8 out of 10 have air-conditioning, and a majority have a washing machine and dryer. Nearly all have microwave ovens. What they dont have is hope.
9. A growing body of careful research suggests that the most effective strategy is to work early on children and education, and to try to encourage and sustain marriage.
10. I dont want to write anybody off, but I admit that efforts to help Ms. McCormick may end with a mixed record. But those twin boys shes carrying? Theres time to transform their lives, and they and millions like them should be a national priority. Theyre too small to fail. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/o...d=2&adxnnlx=1355241766-9YB8/+T5s0YnaFOVSnoFHg
I suggest that those in charge are not oblivious to the solutions suggested in Kristof's piece....so the perceptive on the Left, many of whom made the mistaken votes in the election, should ask themselves why they've been lied to.
And...perhaps....ask why this article wasn't printed prior to the election.....
