Albert Einstein once gracefully said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. This adage comes to mind when we see work requirements being used as a club once again to combat Americans living in poverty who need safety net programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ( SNAP), HUD housing assistance, and if President Trump has his way, even Medicaid.
The White House Council of Economic Advisers has recommended work requirements for the most extensive welfare programs, and the current administration has ordered federal agencies to modify their presumably lax standards for welfare programs. These moves are based on the continuing idea that the poor are a drain on federal resources due to their laziness, recklessness, and lack of ambition. So here we go again, concluding that the poor are poor, solely by their own poor behavior and should be made to work harder to receive help from this government.
It is not so simple.
Is this work requirement approach fair in that aid recipients (excluding children, the elderly, and the disabled) must show an attempt to win over government support, which supposedly incentivizes people not to be poor, or is this kicking the poor down and disenfranchising them when they are already down?
A few points about welfare work requirements are worth examining:
1. According to the US Census Bureau, the 2017 poverty rate was 12.3%, a decrease of 0.4% from the previous year. Since 2014 the poverty rate has fallen by 2.5%. So if the current trend line is a falling poverty rate, why is such a harsh condition like work requirements for the poor necessary right now?
2. This effort was last tested under Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich with their 1996 welfare reform legislation. We’ve had a couple of decades to see how that has fared and studies like the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and in the book Making ends meet (Edin and Lein) show that despite the short-term marginal improvements in employment, they were not sustainable, mainly due to the increased and necessary living expenses absorbing any financial gains generated by work.
3. Where are these jobs that the poor are supposed to get? If you’ve spent most of your life in poverty, the chances that you’ll be able to get a job in the knowledge economy are pretty low quickly. We’ve all heard how traditional blue-collar jobs are drying up, so what’s left? Low-paying part-time jobs with unpredictable and changing hours are what’s left.
4. If the government feels the need to mess with someone, shouldn’t it be the employers of large numbers of unskilled and low-skilled people who pay their workers, including the working poor, insufficient wages who in turn must be underwritten? by the Americans? tax payment?
Now, one place where there could be a political deal is for the government to provide high-quality, subsidized job training requirements aimed at actually helping the poor gain the knowledge and skills necessary for a globalized, digitized economy. Currently, training requirements can replace job requirements, but their effectiveness remains questionable.
The causes and cures for poverty are varied, complex, and well beyond the scope of this article. But if we as a society are truly interested in improving poverty (as we should be!), we must look for demonstrably beneficial interventions that measurably make positive differences. Requiring the poor to get a low-level job that drives up childcare and transportation costs just to show you aren’t exploiting the system or making them pay for a helping hand from those of us with the means to pay taxes is not a humane way. to do it
