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Public Assistance And Poverty Jason L Miller Purdue University Calumet

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Abstract In this article, my attempt was to pose questions about the usefulness of public assistance. There is the issue of consequences of dependency. There's also mixed research on dependency so it's hard to detail one way or another the exact ramifications dependency may have. On the other hand, there is plentiful research on actual benefits public assistance may have locally and globally. In my conclusion, there are no 100% solutions, but doing something is better than doing nothing.

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Public Assistance and Poverty In the United States persistent economic turmoil continues to affect millions of Americans on a daily basis. According to University of Michigan's National Poverty Center in 2010, "15.1 percent of all persons lived in poverty. The poverty rate in 2010 was the highest poverty rate since 1993" (Poverty, n.d.). With the steady rise of poverty an increase in the demand for public assistance has also gone up. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture the need for food stamps has increased from a monthly load of seventeen million people in year 2000, to almost forty-seven million people in year 2012. (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2012.) While dependency is an issue, the government needs to prioritize aid for those in poverty instead of, those who are already thriving. Research against public assistance tends to lean towards the dependency argument. That is to say, they fear those who're on public assistance will create a culture of dependence. The one surprising reason for this focus is that public assistance funding as a whole is less than what people would think, and researches tend to concede to that point. Anti-poverty measures account for only eight percent of Federal spending (Cowen, 2000). So instead the focus is on as Cowen puts it, "Cash payments are portrayed as breaking up families, destroying self-dignity, and creating a destructive culture of welfare dependency" (Cowen, 2000). In 2011 Vartanian, Houser, and Harkness concluded, "Whether FSP participation does, in fact 'promote dependency' is an unsettled question; research evidence is mixed and is highly sensitive to method and to both the timeframe and outcome under consideration" (p. 103). It is not clear in the United States the entire ramifications of dependency. The issue of dependency is a legitimate concern which will take many more years (decades even) of complex research. When making a conclusion about public assistance one would do well to include this issue into their evaluation on the subject.

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Research supporting public assistance tends to focus on successful programs that have shown success helping people in a variety of ways. The top government assistance programs in the U.S. include: Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicare, Medicare Prescription Drug Program, Medicaid, Stafford Student Loans, Food Stamps, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Public Housing Assistance (HUD). Some of those programs have wider support, while others have much less. For example, four out of five Americans say Social Security has been a good thing (Popkin, 2007). To prevent Social Security's projected default in 2037, "by 2:1 margin most would prefer collecting social security taxes on all worker's wages, rather than just the first $90,000 earned each year" (Popkin, 2007). It is no surprise that Social Security has such resounding support. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Social Security keeps nearly twenty million people out of poverty. Although most of those twenty million people are elderly, almost a third of them are under the age of sixty-five (Van de Water & Sherman, 2010). Businesses also get government assistance, such as oil subsidies or agricultural subsidies, and those tend to be less popular with the public. Surprisingly, Food Stamps have broad support. A poll (2012) conducted by the Food Action and Research Center asked: [t]his year, Congress will consider cutting billions of dollars from the food stamp program in an effort to reduce federal spending. Do you favor cutting food assistance to low-income families and seniors, or do you think that is the wrong way to reduce government spending, 75 percent say it is the wrong way to reduce spending. That number was 77 percent in January 2012 and 71 percent in November 2010. (Adach, 2012)

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From the standpoint of success, the program has kept many millions of people from starvation, over many generations. Again there is the issue of dependency, but research is murky on this issue yet. With economic instability prevalent for such a long period of time throughout the U.S., participation in the food stamp program has gone up according to Vartanian et al (2011), "historically unprecedentedly high rates" (p. 101). The shift in a distressed economy has put many Americans in a tough spot, where they have to look to the government for assistance in getting their nutritional needs. Vartanian et al (2011) says that, "receipt of food stamps reduces food insecurity and may lower mortality relative to a condition of non-receipt" (p. 105). Another benefit of food stamps according to a recent study by the National Poverty Center, SNAP (the new name for the food stamp program) reduced the number of extreme poor children by nearly fifty percent in 2011 (Shaefer & Edin, 2012). There are other social programs outside of the U.S. that also have received attention. In Brazil a program called Bolsa Familia is transforming that country. It is a conditional cash transfer program (CCT) that empowers Brazil's poorest. According to Bunting (2010): Since 2003, 12 million families have joined the scheme and receive small amounts of money (around $12 a month). Inequality has been cut by 17% in just five years, which is perhaps one of the most dramatic achievements in welfare ever recorded. The poverty rate has fallen from 42.7% to 28.8% . (Bunting, 2010) Bolsa Familia's goal is to reduce poverty and encourage people to invest in their child's health and education.

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The Nordic country of Finland, regularly (since 2000) ranks at the top in reading, math and science competencies according to OECD (PISA) surveys (OECD n.d.). This kind of success is managed with no private schools, or private universities. Their education is free and meals are provided free to full-time students. Schools hours are cut in half, there is little homework, no standardized tests, and 50-minute recesses (Tung, 2012). A question one might ask themselves is why the United States is doing measurably worse, and what were doing, if anything to try and adopt their successful methods. Not all public assistance programs can be successful, and those that do not work should be ignored. But, we live in a competitive global economy, our goal should be to adopt what works. Some solutions that have worked in other countries, tend to be ignored in the U.S. if not outright shunned. That is the first key to bringing reasonable solutions to poverty. We need to stop ignoring the facts of what works; most especially when what we are doing is not working. Since dependency is a known issue both politically and sometimes factually, we should look at more incentivized ways of helping people, much like Bolsa Famlia in Brazil or Oportunidades in Mexico. It is clear that public assistance can work and so when it can be used to create positive change on balance, it should. Also, education is a significant determiner of poverty. For example, after Bolsa Famila was implemented, attendance increased, and child labor dropped (Rosenberg, 2011). In Finland, where schooling is free and their nutritional needs are provided for, they have some of the highest test scores in the world. If we want to effectively deal with poverty, we need to address the issues that cause it. Many of those causes are drawn back to instability in the home, lack of food, and an education system that does not work. If we address these issues, I have no doubts

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that the results will be drastic and for the better To remove the barriers to success, we first must understand those barriers. Many children come from broken homes, which can cause significant damage to their psyche. In those same homes, there are problems with drug abuse, mental abuse, and nutritional problems. If we can create outreach programs to help these struggling families, this may also address the cycle of poverty. When these issues are addressed, it benefits society as a whole, because it would serve us functioning, capable people who can give something to society. As the old proverb goes, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." While we should be aware of potential pitfalls to public assistance, it is hard to scrutinize our programs that assist the poor and middle class when there are so many programs to help those who already have. How can we expect the poor to "pull themselves from their bootstraps", if we cannot even expect those in wealthier circles to do so. As a taxpayer myself, I feel better knowing that if I were to come into hard times, that my tax dollars are being put to good use, and there is a net to help sustain me. There is also the issue of our priorities, we help many people who do not really need any, such as wealthy corporations. We also help many abroad; I'm of the mind that we should clan our own backyard before we work on others. I would urge anyone who is concerned about this issue to do their own homework on this, educate as many people as possible, that way change can be made possible. Contact local and state representatives and inform them of the unacceptable nature of this issue and fight for what is right.

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References Adach, J. (2012, September 05). New USDA Data Show One in Six Americans in Households Struggling Against Hunger [Supplemental material]. Food Action and Research Center. Retrieved from http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5118/p/salsa/web/common/public/content?content_it em_KEY=10417 Bunting, M. (2010, November 19). Brazil's cash transfer scheme is improving the lives of the poorest. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardiannews.com Cowen, T. (2000). Does the Welfare State Help the Poor? Retrieved from George Mason University, Fairfax Virginia, Department of Economics: http://www.gmu.edu/centers/publicchoice/faculty%20pages/Tyler/welfare.pdf Institute For America's Future. (n.d.) Corporate Welfare. Retrieved from http://institute.ourfuture.org/node/19978 OECD. (n.d.). PISA Key Findings. [Data set]. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/ Popkin, S. (2007). Public Opinion and Collective Obligations. Symposium: What Do We Do To Each Other?, 44, 37-44. doi: 10.1007/s12115-007-9008-x Rosenberg, T. (2011, January 3). To Beat Back Poverty, Pay the Poor. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.newyorktimes.com Shaefer, L. & Edin, K. (2012). Extreme Poverty in the United States, 1996-2011. Retrieved from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, School of Social Work & School of Government: http://npc.umich.edu/publications/policy_briefs/brief28/policybrief28.pdf

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Tung, S. (2012, January 20). How the Finnish school system outshines the U.S. education [Supplemental material]. Stanford University News. Retrieved from http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/january/finnish-schools-reform-012012.html U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2012). Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Retrieved from http://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/34SNAPmonthly.htm Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.(2010, August 11). Social Security Keeps 20 Million Americans Out Of Poverty: A State-By-State Analysis. Retrieved from http://www.cbpp.org/files/8-11-10socsec.pdf Vartanian, T. Houser, L. & Harkness, J. (2011). Food Stamps and Dependency: Disentangling the Short-term and Long-term Effects of Food Stamp Receipt and Low Income for Young Mothers. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 38, 101-122. http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/69683326/food-stamps-dependencydisentangling-short-term-long-term-economic-effects-food-stamp-receipt-low-incomeyoung-mothers