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Why is this surprising? Most anti-poverty measures are ineffective. The "war on poverty" has not worked in a single metric. Affirmative action hasn't changed a

Why is this surprising? Most anti-poverty measures are ineffective. The "war on poverty" has not worked in a single metric. Affirmative action hasn't changed a thing. The only thing that can get you out of poverty is a good family structure, a culture built on performance (Chinese, Indian culture takes this waaaay to far, but it's a start).

tootie 9y ago
You'll need a lot of citation for that. Also, Affirmative Action is decidedly not an anti-poverty program. It's an anti-bias program. And the comparison to China and India is apples and oranges. Aside from the fact that both countries have hundreds of millions of people in poverty, their success has been in industrializing agrarian societies. America is pretty far past that point. Our levels of absolute poverty (penury) are already near zero.
- yasp 9y ago
  Giving someone a 200+ point advantage on their SATs based solely on the color of their skin is an anti-bias program now?
  - tootie 9y ago
    That's not really how it works, but I also didn't comment on it's effectiveness, just that it's not anti-poverty. If you're rich and a minority you get the same advantage. The test for eligibility isn't means-based. Hence, not anti-poverty. The intent is to get more minorities into colleges and into jobs. You can argue whether or not that's fair, but it probably works pretty well as intended.
    - yasp 9y ago
      > Even With Affirmative Action, Blacks and Hispanics Are More Underrepresented at Top Colleges Than 35 Years Ago https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmative-action.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmativ... Maybe it works as intended as long as you're trying to maximize enrollment in "any colleges", not "best colleges".
      - dang 9y ago
        It looks like this account is using HN primarily for ideological battle. We ban accounts that do that, as I've explained at length here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16402648 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16402648 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16402618 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16402618 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16185062 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16185062 ... and plenty more at https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=by:dang%20primarily https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... for anyone who wants it. Would you please (re-)read the site rules at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and use HN as intended—that means for intellectual curiosity—from now on?
Zungaron 9y ago
Social Security is an anti-poverty measure, and it's the most successful thing the US government has ever done. Turns out that giving people money is a great way to solve the problem of not having enough money.
- ams6110 9y ago
  It helps old people who otherwise had nothing. But we're also giving money to a lot of people who don't strictly need it, or who had the means to save for their own retirements.

tootie 9y ago

You'll need a lot of citation for that. Also, Affirmative Action is decidedly not an anti-poverty program. It's an anti-bias program. And the comparison to China and India is apples and oranges. Aside from the fact that both countries have hundreds of millions of people in poverty, their success has been in industrializing agrarian societies. America is pretty far past that point. Our levels of absolute poverty (penury) are already near zero.

yasp 9y ago
Giving someone a 200+ point advantage on their SATs based solely on the color of their skin is an anti-bias program now?
- tootie 9y ago
  That's not really how it works, but I also didn't comment on it's effectiveness, just that it's not anti-poverty. If you're rich and a minority you get the same advantage. The test for eligibility isn't means-based. Hence, not anti-poverty. The intent is to get more minorities into colleges and into jobs. You can argue whether or not that's fair, but it probably works pretty well as intended.
  - yasp 9y ago
    > Even With Affirmative Action, Blacks and Hispanics Are More Underrepresented at Top Colleges Than 35 Years Ago https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmative-action.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmativ... Maybe it works as intended as long as you're trying to maximize enrollment in "any colleges", not "best colleges".
    - dang 9y ago
      It looks like this account is using HN primarily for ideological battle. We ban accounts that do that, as I've explained at length here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16402648 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16402648 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16402618 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16402618 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16185062 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16185062 ... and plenty more at https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=by:dang%20primarily https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... for anyone who wants it. Would you please (re-)read the site rules at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and use HN as intended—that means for intellectual curiosity—from now on?

Zungaron 9y ago

Social Security is an anti-poverty measure, and it's the most successful thing the US government has ever done. Turns out that giving people money is a great way to solve the problem of not having enough money.

ams6110 9y ago
It helps old people who otherwise had nothing. But we're also giving money to a lot of people who don't strictly need it, or who had the means to save for their own retirements.