"A Work-Based Safety Net With No Work"
How can we reconcile our "work-first" public assistance efforts with the nationwide joblessness of this recession? It's unlikely we'll ever go back to our pre-1996 welfare days, and yet, we know job training programs often fail, and that low-wage work, while usually plentiful, doesn't lift people out of poverty. And now we can't even turn our backs on legions of struggling, working poor Americans, as more and more of us are out of work. Sadly, it's an interesting time to be an anti-poverty policymaker.
Consider these facts:
- "Nearly 14 million Americans are unemployed, and more than 100,000 people join their ranks each week."
- "Eight states have double-digit unemployment rates; California and Michigan have counties where the rate reaches Depression-era levels of 25 percent."
- "...unemployment insurance, reaches just 44 percent of the unemployed, with the lowest-paid workers most often left out."
Amazing. Depression-era unemployment. An antiquated unemployment system, rising joblessness, and yet the public assistance caseloads are not growing and are even falling in some states.
Turns out, the only healthy growth we're seeing in public assistance is in the food stamp program, which does not distinguish between those who work and those who do not. "One in 9 Americans now gets food stamps..." Chances are, if you look around you, someone in your line of vision may be one of them.
So what are we going to do? As long as we have a capitalist system, we will have people who are under- or unemployed. We have to accept that, and build public support around that reality. As long as our economic system remains gendered and racist - i.e., women and people of color are more likely to earn less than their white, male counterparts - than we have to correct for that with policy. If truly fighting poverty at home is a priority, that is. Based on the popularity of causes at Change.org alone, I'm not convinced it is. (Though I felt this way before I joined.)
Especially right now, while my jet-lagged brain is just striving for blog post coherence, I don't have any solutions. But this is something we really need to consider. Living wages? Higher minimum wage? Universal health insurance? What do you think?
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