Structural factors maintaining poverty in the U.S.
The benefits cliff
The United States is the richest country on planet earth currently, and in history, and yet a significant percentage of its citizens live in poverty. Poverty is usually seen as a personal failing because the person doesn’t work hard enough, isn’t smart enough, or has some sort of moral failing. Poverty, to assuage the guilt of the not-poor, is seen as a personal, individual thing when in fact the factors contributing to poverty are part of the social structure and system. These factors contributing to the phenomenon of poverty amidst abundance are usually below the level of awareness of the population and being unrecognized, unacknowledged, they are not effectively managed and minimized or eliminated.
One of the purposes of davidgmarkham.substack.com newsletter is to highlight the structural and systemic factors contributing to poverty as they can be effectively and efficiently managed at a macro systemic level.
One of these factors that maintains poverty in the United States is the “benefits cliff.” The safety net in the United States, compared to other first world democracies, is not only extremely inadequate but often punitive. Eligibility to receive societal support is tightly managed and in many instances counter productive. Individuals and families are eligible for support at certain levels of deprivation, but if they reach the upper range of eligibility are abruptly cut off and thrown back into poverty.
The question before us is how can the benefits cliff be managed in a more effective and efficient manner so that as people improve their ability to be self-sustaining, the decrease in societal support is graduated in its withdrawal rather than abruptly discontinued?
From the Public News Service 04/24/24 “CT Day of Action raises awareness on 'benefits cliff'
The benefits cliff is when a person might get a raise, have a kid with a part-time job, or some other income increase which then makes them ineligible for certain benefits. The changes can have severe impacts on communities and disproportionately affect families with children.
Stephen Monroe Tomczak, professor of social work at Southern Connecticut State University, said it is part of a larger workforce problem.
"People, particularly people of low income, are in a sense disincentivized to participate in the labor force and denied adequate jobs and income when they try to do that," Tomczak explained.
Thanks Josh for your idea that vocational training is key to helping people be upwardly social mobile and rise out of poverty. It seems that public schools got derailed with the "no child left behind" nonsense that led to schools teaching to the test for the bureaucrats rather than to the needs and preferences of their students, families, and communities.
Many social programs have iatrogenic consequences - that is they make the very problems they were meant to address worse instead of better. The phenomenon of iatrogenic consequences is more lively when decision makers are thinking in linear and reductive ways rather than systemically.
One of the interesting things is that much better outcomes might be achieved by children when their parents are nurtured and supported though job training and vocational support themselves. When the parents are helped to function better their children do better. Adult educational opportunities for working parents is another aspect of CTE that can provide huge benefits for the parents, their children, and our community.
The k-12 educational journey is, at its foundation, the answer for addressing poverty, generational poverty and building a bridge which would eliminate the "cliff". Rochester, NY is a prime example. When you cannot provide a relevant education, you get kids that get educated on the street. They never even experience the "cliff". They just reside on the streets and experience to police, the crime, the drugs, teenage pregnancy and generational poverty. All kids have innate skills and or gifts. The K-12 journey needs to discover that skill/gift. Show them nothing but academics and you get dropouts. Dropouts who's first question is when dropping out....."what do I need this S--- for anyway?" Show them professions and careers and they will connect those perceived boring academics with those opportunities. This is not that difficult. It is, however, something the RCSB and the RCSD cannot seem to understand. So much education and intellect and zero ingenuity. Bring back the Edison Technical and Industrial of old. That was the crown jewel of the RCSD. It was systematically destroyed by the same intellect that is in charge today. The "cliff " highlights the educational failure. It would be greatly reduced with a comprehensive vocational education program. Those suggestions fall on deaf ears.