Public Programs Keep Millions Out of Poverty, New Study Shows

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.offthechartsblog.org/public-programs-keep-millions-out-of-poverty-new-study-shows/&utm_source=test/

With anti-poverty programs under serious attack in Washington, here’s something to keep in mind: a major new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) finds that public programs keep one in six Americans out of poverty — primarily the elderly, disabled, and working poor — and that the poverty rate would double without these programs.

Without the cash and non-cash income provided by programs such as Social Security, SNAP (formerly food stamps), and the Earned Income Tax Credit:

* The share of Americans below the poverty line in 2004 ($19,307 for a family of four) would have more than doubled, from 13.5 percent to 29 percent. That is, 45 million more Americans would have been poor.
* The share of Americans in “deep poverty,” with incomes below half the poverty line, would have more than tripled, to 21 percent.


:snip:



More at the link --

[SDuderstadt]

1. + 1 n/t

[TygrBright]

2. See, that's the problem.

These programs are doing what they were designed to do. They are effective. They are functional. They WORK.

And we can't have that, because after all everyone knows that government programs are ineffective and only the Vaunted Private Sector can actually accomplish anything.

So, dang, shut those mothers down, or someone might get the horribly unwelcome idea that government can actually do some of the things the Founders intended, forming a more perfect union and ensuring the general welfare and all like that. Horrors!

cynically,
Bright

[Agony]

4. The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

GBShaw

Thanks Bright!
Cheers!
Agony

[kestrel91316]

3. "...public programs keep one in six Americans out of poverty..."

Don't you get it?? This is WHY we need to eliminate these programs.

If people fall into poverty it's because they earned Gawd's disfavor. The wealthy and successful are that way because Gawd likes them better.

[applegrove]

5. Watch the GOP start attacking the NBER. They hate good information. They only like

bad intelligence for the people of the USA because it makes people easier to manipulate.