10 Reasons Why America's Social Safety Net Needs Fixing

[dajoki]

10 Reasons Why America's Social Safety Net Needs Fixing
by Lauren Kelley June 14, 2010 04:30 PM (PT)
http://uspoverty.change.org/blog/view/10_reasons_why_americas_social_safety_net_needs_fixing

The safety net, the social contract — whatever you want to call it, the network of programs and services provided by the public and charitable sectors to help the country's most vulnerable individuals in times of need is in dire straits these days. Even the most die-hard social conservative would never say he wants to see impoverished people suffering needlessly, and yet that is exactly what's happening in our country today. Here are 10 reasons why we need to take active steps to repair the safety net.

1. The country's charities and nonprofits are strained to the breaking point by a perfect storm of government budget cuts, financially-strapped donors and increased demand for services.

2. State budgets are a mess nationwide, causing delayed payments to nonprofits that have state contracts to provide social services as well as the elimination and scaling back of many state programs.

3. The Great Recession has created a new class of poor people who are relying on social service programs for the first time.

4. That has been caused, in part, by unemployment rates that are at record levels around the country, especially for certain populations.

5. Food insecurity is at an all-time high.

6. Children are falling into poverty in record numbers. (Even the staunchest "personal responsibility" advocate would have a hard time arguing that children are to blame for their socioeconomic status.)

7. The "new poor" could stay poor, straining the safety net for years, or even decades, to come.

8. The United States lags behind other countries in the world in protecting vulnerable families and promoting economic security. http://www.scribd.com/doc/24815290/Excerpt-Repairing-the-U-S-Social-Safety-Net

9. At the same time, America's social contract is an important part of our history that dates back to Franklin Roosevelt's administration and the aftermath of the Great Depression. http://www.scribd.com/doc/24815290/Excerpt-Repairing-the-U-S-Social-Safety-Net


10. There are innovative thinkers out there with ideas about new safety net models. What if citizens and lawmakers fostered, rather than largely ignored, that kind of thinking?

[HughBeaumont]

1. K & R. Of course, this will mean America will have to forgo it's empire hard-on.

After all, part of the reason America's social safety net is vastly inadequate is because of it's empire hard-on.

[dajoki]

11. That is an addiction...

and like any addiction it will be extremely hard to overcome and it doesn't matter who is in office.

[Lorien]

2. K & R. nt

[bobbolink]

3. I have yet to figure out how to get "progressives" to care.

There is a thread about a homeless vet that is sinking like a rock here.

If "progressives" can't rouse any compassion, then how is any of this going to change?

[dajoki]

4. Why the unrec?

I don't mind the unrec., but at least have the balls to make a post and explain.

[HughBeaumont]

5. There're people on here that love job offshoring and think corporate globalization is great.

So anyone un-reccing a thread about improvements to helping the neediest doesn't really surprise me much.

[dajoki]

6. Like I said...

I don't mind it, just give a reason. And I am not surprised either.

[Yuugal]

7. K&Red

My guess is whoever unrecced you didn't want to kick your thread either. There is a group of people on here who monopolize the site by spamming threads all day and when I unrec their posts I never kick them. Be happy they haven't alerted your stuff to the point it is removed altogether. They work together.

[dajoki]

8. Good point, thanks n/t

[damntexdem]

9. And # 11: it wasn't such a good safety net to start with.

The economic crisis has only made things worse in a system that was already weak.

[dajoki]

10. Weak because...

over the years we have been ripping that net apart. And Obama plans to finish the job with his committee that will cut Social Security.

[Scuba]

12. The right-wingers love these conditions....

...cheap, scared labor is the best kind, next to slave labor of course.