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From the article: > His fact-finding mission into the richest nation the world has ever known has led him to investigate the tragedy at its core: the 41 million
by gwright 9y ago
From the article:
> His fact-finding mission into the richest nation the world has ever known has led him to investigate the tragedy at its core: the 41 million people who officially live in poverty.
Sounds bad, but that number "officially" leaves out almost all assistance provided by the government to low-income beneficiaries such as food stamps, housing etc. It is a measure of cash income poverty and not a measure of income + government benefits.
It is a misleading metric because you can effectively feed, house, and clothe all those with "poverty" level income and you won't change that poverty statistic at all.
There is plenty of room for discussion on improved social welfare programs but it might be prudent to actually acknowledge the existing benefits before figuring out what to do next.
- locopati 9y agoThe existing benefits that come with so many strings and restrictions and limitations and political manipulations that they cannot be reliably counted upon?
- mempko 9y agoto get those welfare benefits, you have to go through bureaucratic hell. Many don't do it because you have to give up some freedom to get those benefits.
- gwright 9y agoFair point, but also a different point. I also suspect it is a tiny number of people out of the "41 million". Even with a low-friction delivery of government services some people will opt-out on principle. I have several acquaintances that live in poverty if you only count cash income but they are living on their own terms and certainly wouldn't describe themselves as "living in poverty".