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Poverty
Townhall.com ^ | October 8, 2014 | John Stossel

Posted on 10/08/2014 4:40:41 AM PDT by Kaslin

Fifty years ago, President Lyndon Johnson declared "War on Poverty." It sounded great to me. I was taught at Princeton, "We're a rich country. All we have to do is tax the rich, and then use that money to create programs that will lift the poor out of poverty." Government created job-training programs for the strong and expanded social security for the weak.

It seemed to work. The poverty rate dropped from 17 percent to 12 percent in the programs' first decade. Unfortunately, few people noticed that during the half-decade before the "War," the rate dropped from 22 percent to 17 percent. Without big government, Americans were already lifting themselves out of poverty!

Johnson's War brought further progress, but progress then stopped. It stopped because government is not good at making a distinction between needy and lazy. It taught moms not to marry the father of their kids because that would reduce their welfare benefits. Welfare invited people to be dependent. Some people started to say, "Entry-level jobs are for suckers." Many could live almost as well without the hassle of work.

Despite spending an astonishing $22 trillion dollars, despite 92 different government welfare programs, poverty stopped declining. Government's answer? Spend more!

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, points out that government measures "success" by the growth of programs: "based on inputs, how much money are we spending, how many programs are we creating, how many people are we putting on these programs -- not on outcomes -- how many people are we getting out of poverty? ... Many of these programs end up disincentivizing work -- telling people it pays not to go to work because you'll lose more in benefits than you gain in earning wages."

That doesn't mean the poor are lazy. It means they respond to incentives. They are rational about choosing behaviors that, at least in the short term, pay off.

It's not only welfare that makes it harder for the poor to climb the ladder of success. Well-intended laws, such as a minimum wage, hurt, too.

But most people don't understand that. Even Republicans, according to opinion polls, support a higher minimum wage. A minimum sounds compassionate. It's hard to live on $7.25 an hour.

But setting a minimum is anything but compassionate because that eliminates starter jobs. The minimum wage is why kids don't work as apprentices anymore, nor clean your windshield at gas stations. They never get hired because employers reason, "If I must pay $9, I'm not taking a chance on a beginner."

To most economists, the claim that the minimum wage kills starter jobs is not controversial. But it is among the general public. And so politicians pander.

On my TV show this week, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) says that people like Paul Ryan and I "just want to cut the size of government. And trust the private sector to do everything."

Well ... yes. The private sector does just about everything better.

McDermott says, "This whole business about somehow raising the minimum wage causes a loss of jobs -- if that's true, why don't we just drop the minimum wage altogether and let people work for a dollar a day or $1 an hour?"

OK, let's do it! It's not as if wages are set by the minimum wage.

That is a great conceit of the central planners: thinking that only government prevents employers from paying workers nearly nothing. But the reason Americans don't work for $1 an hour is competition, not government minimums. Competition is what forces companies to pay workers more. It doesn't much matter that the law says they can pay as low as $7.25. Only 4 percent of American workers now make that little. Ninety-five percent make more.

The free market will sort this out, if politicians would just let it. Left free, the market will provide the greatest benefit to workers, employers and consumers, while allowing charity as well.

It would all happen faster if politicians stopped imagining that they are the cause of everything.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: legislation; poverty
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1 posted on 10/08/2014 4:40:41 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
Johnson's War brought further progress, but progress then stopped. It stopped because government is not good at making a distinction between needy and lazy.

Well, not exactly.

It stopped because poverty became an industry in this country, and many people stood to make a fortune doing business with all of the "customers" that government created for them.

2 posted on 10/08/2014 4:43:44 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on here?")
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To: Kaslin

LBJ should be dug up so he can be pissed on.


3 posted on 10/08/2014 4:44:40 AM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: Alberta's Child

Bring back jobs to America.

Now.


4 posted on 10/08/2014 4:46:40 AM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network (http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html#2013)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network
OK -- whatever.

Why don't you post something that's relevant to the item you're responding to, instead of engaging in that idiotic rant that you post on every thread?

5 posted on 10/08/2014 4:49:14 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on here?")
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To: Alberta's Child

Because boilerplate posts that border on spam are much easier than actually having to rub two brain cells together.


6 posted on 10/08/2014 4:54:52 AM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: Kaslin
no pity for the lazy!
7 posted on 10/08/2014 5:00:08 AM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -vvv- NO Pity for the LAZY - 86-44)
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To: Alberta's Child

I was just laid off, after almost 20 years.

Just this week.

BRING BACK JOBS TO AMERICA.


8 posted on 10/08/2014 5:03:01 AM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network (http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html#2013)
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To: Kaslin

Liberals keep redefining poverty thus the ‘War on Poverty’ will never be won.

Now, poor means you only have 1 72” flat screen HDTV, the latest playstation with the latest games, 2 Obamaphones, 4 pair of $200 Air Jordan sneakers, free electricity, free housing, free food, free health care, and cash subsidies, while you’re unemployed.

I was chatting with some Germans and talking about the difference between me (working long hours here in Warsaw) and the Germans. “It pays just as much to make 500 Euro a month as it does 5000 Euro per month.”

They are absolutely right. Being poor in our liberal countries pays better than working hard and earning a living. Why leave poverty when you can get paid to not work?


9 posted on 10/08/2014 5:05:25 AM PDT by Organic Panic
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To: Cringing Negativism Network
I'm sorry to hear that, but you've been posting this nonsense for months (if not longer).

What kind of work do you do, and where do you live?

10 posted on 10/08/2014 5:06:29 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on here?")
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To: Kaslin

The reason a minimum wage is necessary is that supply and demand of labor has been skewed. Invaders (legal and illegal) depress wages at all income levels. There’s no protection from unfair completion against goods from slave labor countries. The irony of that is a lot of high-end merchandise is made in these conditions, and that merchandise isn’t any cheaper than it could be if it were made in the US. Corporations, celebrity endorsers, transportation companies, contractors who secure the sources....they’re the ones profiting.


11 posted on 10/08/2014 5:09:45 AM PDT by grania
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To: Kaslin

This country has a larger poverty problem than measured by money....

Poverty of morals and ethics...

Financial poverty is symbolic of those two things...

Not inclusive of all poverty, but the largest part....


12 posted on 10/08/2014 5:11:19 AM PDT by Popman (Jesus Christ Alone: My Cornerstone...)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

Who, exactly, should “bring back jobs to America”? The government? Who?


13 posted on 10/08/2014 5:13:22 AM PDT by BADROTOFINGER (Life sucks. Get a helmet.)
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To: Alberta's Child; Cringing Negativism Network
AC: How is bringing back jobs to the US not relevant? If jobs were brought back to the US, and filled by US citizens (not invaders) it would solve a lot of the poverty and low-income issues.
14 posted on 10/08/2014 5:13:35 AM PDT by grania
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To: grania
You missed the whole point of the article. The "poverty" problem in America isn't caused by a lack of jobs. The bigger problem is that a disproportionate share of the people classified as "poor" in this country are unemployed because they are unemployable.

And that is a cultural and moral rot that has been foisted on America by its own elected leaders.

15 posted on 10/08/2014 5:16:48 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on here?")
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To: Alberta's Child

IT in Southern California.

I’m looking in Texas, or elsewhere, I will know more in a bit right now I’m applying at my company for other spots here in the USA.

This weekend I will probably expand my search outside. I am actually still “employed” until next month, but I’m out in a month.

And just for the record, we have sent a (bunch) of jobs overseas, as a company. For perhaps the last 10 years, continuously

We are still very big in America, but we have outsourced so very much it is ... the reason I talk about it so much.

America needs more jobs. Here in America.


16 posted on 10/08/2014 5:17:44 AM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network (http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html#2013)
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To: Popman
Poverty of morals and ethics...

And intelligence. You can go to a slum in South America or anywhere in Asia and ask questions about global events, US politics, general scientific facts, and would be surprised how well informed non-Americans are. Most Americans basically have shit for brains. If stupid were a commodity, we got the market cornered.
17 posted on 10/08/2014 5:18:03 AM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: Alberta's Child

Right.

The ‘Civil Rights Industry, Inc.’ is married to the ‘poverty’ shtick.

It would be impossible for Liberal politicians to campaign with their usual lies if they had to admit the truth about ‘poverty’ in America.


18 posted on 10/08/2014 5:18:17 AM PDT by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

Hmmmmm ....just laid off.

Were the constant posts over the last year or so pre lay off?

I am sympathetic with your plight.


19 posted on 10/08/2014 5:20:32 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12 ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network
Well, good luck with that.

How much business does your company do overseas?

20 posted on 10/08/2014 5:21:01 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on here?")
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