"The huge increase in government aid prompted by the coronavirus pandemic will cut poverty nearly in half this year from prepandemic levels and push the share of Americans in poverty to the lowest level on record, according to the most comprehensive analysis yet of a vast but temporary expansion of the safety net."
Yes If you give poor people money you will lift many out of poverty temporarily, but you can't act like this is a good long term solution.
"The number of poor Americans is expected to fall by nearly 20 million from 2018 levels, a decline of almost 45 percent. The country has never cut poverty so much in such a short period of time, and the development is especially notable since it defies economic headwinds — the economy has nearly seven million fewer jobs than it did before the pandemic."
What it defies is economic law, you are trying to artificially raise people out of poverty during a time when actually poverty should have been increasing due to lockdowns and other small business killing measures.
"The extraordinary reduction in poverty has come at extraordinary cost, with annual spending on major programs projected to rise fourfold to more than $1 trillion. Yet without further expensive new measures, millions of families may find the escape from poverty brief. The three programs that cut poverty most — stimulus checks, increased food stamps and expanded unemployment insurance — have ended or are scheduled to soon revert to their prepandemic size."
Odds are they will not return to their pre lockdown size, not unless some democrats will be willing to go against their party. Now that the people are reliant on this money and since these programs have caused massive price increases, going back to the funding of before would just cause poverty to go above what it was before the lockdowns.
"The Biden administration has started making monthly payments to most families with children through an expansion of the child tax credit. Democrats want to make the yearlong effort permanent, which would reduce child poverty on a continuing basis by giving their families an income guarantee."
This is not true, unless what they mean by permanent they mean permanently increasing the child tax credit year after year, you can not artificially provide people with income for free there has to be a cost to someone. The cost of these safety nets will be increases in the cost of goods and services, this is why for the child tax credit to actually continue to reduce child poverty it would need to be increased every year. Is this really what we want to do? Why not solve the problem rather than just give up and say well people in poverty are just gonna be in poverty so lets give them money, thats just not how we should do things.
"“Wow — these are stunning findings,” said Bob Greenstein, a longtime proponent of safety net programs who is now at the Brookings Institution. “The policy response since the start of the pandemic goes beyond anything we’ve ever done, and the antipoverty effect dwarfs what most of us thought was possible.”"
Mr. Greenstein don't take this the wrong way, but you must not be very smart. No seriously because if you don't understand you can raise everyone out of poverty by giving them 30,000 dollars then you obviously don't know what is considered poverty. Now this is why we should not be focused on solving poverty by simply putting a price tag on it, thats not what solving poverty is about nor is it a good way to do it. If you gave every person who is considered to be living in poverty 30,000 today you would have eradicated poverty today. Problem is some might go buy drugs, cars, or other things that don't improve their economic situation. Solving Poverty is about solving complacency or by solving economic mobility, it is also about solving financial education. This would all be far to complicated and difficult for the Government to figure out though so I don't blame them, forget about solving the problem lets just hand out money and make ourselves look good using poverty statistics.
"To understand how large the recent aid expansion has been, consider the experience of Kathryn Goodwin, a single mother of five in St. Charles, Mo., who managed a group of trailer parks before the pandemic eliminated her $33,000 job."
Did the virus eliminate her from her job though? Did the virus knock on the door and say "sorry Ms. Goodwin your fired" no no, what most likely happened is the lockdowns caused economic strain on the owner of the trailer park and so Ms. Goodwin had to be laid off, so the government breaks Ms. Goodwins leg and keeps her from working, but don't worry she can get a crutch and just get paid not to produce any value.
"“Without that help, I literally don’t know how I would have survived,” she said. “We would have been homeless.”"
Without the Government hurting you and causing you to lose your job you probably would have continued surviving like you were, don't develop Stockholm syndrome.
"Poverty fell across racial and ethnic groups but most for people who are Black and Latino, meaning the gap with white Americans narrowed. The Rev. Starsky Wilson, the president of the Children’s Defense Fund, credited the racial protests of the past year for prompting lawmakers to act. “It’s no coincidence that the effort at mobilizing resulted in investments that reduced poverty and narrowed disparities,” he said."
See white people and Asians have no problem keeping themselves out of poverty and working hard and making enough money to stay afloat, but black and brown people? oh there is just no way they could do it on their own, see the New York times has opened my eyes to the fact that minorities just can't do it by themselves they need our help they are poor and not smart thank you New York Times for letting me know. I am just kidding of course this part of the article disgusts me, to imply that the only reason minorities are doing better is because white politicians are helping them is outrageous and I hope this pisses them off as much as it pisses me off.
"But he said he distrusted “the crooked government” and urged poor people to help themselves. “If you want to change your life, you have to get up and do something — not sit home and get free money,” he said."
See some people get it, don't rely on this money that is getting handed to you. Use this money to invest in yourself, try not to blow it on stuff you don't need or even food, when you get handed $1200 use that money to help you make more money that is the only way your going to get out of poverty plain and simple.
"The aid helped them eat better and worry less, said Ms. Burgess, who called the support a foundation for a more just society. “If our resources in a pandemic could change millions of people’s lives, then what’s stopping us from continuing to do that?” she said."
I don't think a just society is one that puts small business owners in jail for trying to make money and you know stay out of poverty, kind of ironic isn't it? your sitting here talking about how great it is that the government is giving people this money to stay out of poverty while that same government is closing business permanently and putting people in jail for trying to make money to stay out of poverty. The Government does not want to solve poverty and that is obvious even after reading this New York Times article.
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