Posted on 06/06/2023 7:33:26 AM PDT by Towed_Jumper
A new, multi-million dollar program was announced Monday in Harris County that looks to help bridge economic inequality and reduce poverty.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Commissioner Rodney Ellis introduced the $20.5 million investment program called Uplift Harris. The program will be proposed during Tuesday's Commissioner's Court meeting Tuesday.
As the first of its kind for the city, a pilot program would launch later this year, if approved, where families living below 200% of the federal poverty line - approximately $40,000 for a family of four - will receive $500 a month to support household needs.
However, Commissioner Ellis says programs like these have worked in other areas.
"Similar programs in other cities and counties have been shown to increase employment and the incentive to work while reducing poverty," he said in a press release. "But the benefits go even further. Families report improvements to their physical and mental health and are able to spend more time with their children. They also have a greater sense of self-determination when they are trusted with the resources they need to build a better life."
If approved, the program would run for 18 months starting in the Fall and administered by a third-party agency and subjected to rigorous evaluation, the county noted.
The guaranteed funds would help families meet their basic needs like paying rent, buying groceries, transportation, or child care. Because Harris County is one of the most economically segregated regions in the U.S., with wealth disparities impacting people of color, the program looks to address these concerns.
"Decades of neglect, inequity, and discrimination have financially destabilized generations of Harris County families, perpetuated poverty, and created unfair barriers to prosperity," Commissioner Ellis explained. "Unchecked and ongoing inequality has created an economic divide that families can’t overcome on their own, and Harris County has an obligation to act."
"It is uncivilized that we live in a society where people cannot afford basic necessities," Judge Hidalgo added in the release. "We all may know hardworking families who are one extra cost away from falling off their stable path."
Families eligible for the program will be randomly selected, according to the release, who either live in targeted high-poverty ZIP Codes or participate in Harris County Public Health’s ACCESS (Accessing Coordinated Care and Empowering Self Sufficiency) Harris County, a program to improve the lives of residents experiencing hardship and facing health challenges, financial and housing needs, and social inequity.
"As county leaders, we have a duty to employ all the tools that we can to reduce poverty. This pilot program will support the people that work incredibly hard day and night but still need an uplift."
To learn more about similar programs like this, click here.
“It is uncivilized that we live in a society where people cannot afford basic necessities,” Judge Hidalgo added in the release.
Free enterprise in a society where people can own things and build wealth without the burdens of socialism is the best way to make the most people prosperous and to make the more people who deserve wealth get and keep it.
The problem she addresses is NOT solved by imitating Venezuela.
The government cannot be the Savior of the world. Charity is a function of religion. Let people voluntarily help the poor. Let people keep the money they earn and the property the acquire.
Socialism is anti-Christian. Here are some relevant passages from the Bible:
Hard work and voluntary giving produce the greatest economic outcome:
Acts 20:35 NKJV
I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
Poverty will never be completely eradicated:
John 12:8 NKJV
For the poor you have with you always, but Me [Jesus] you do not have always.
Socialism breaks one of the basic commandments:
Exodus 20:15 NKJV
You shall not steal.
Many "beneficiaries" don't grasp that when the government pays for your housing (Section 8), pays for your healthcare (Medicaid), pays for your food (EBT cards); and now gives you cash (guaranteed income payments), you are still a slave.
They've merely swapped the master in the big house for the government master in the state house.
Self-determination only comes from self-reliance.
investment program, so when you invest you expect to get something in return, where’s the return? there is none.
It’s coming from the idea that machines are finally ready to take over many jobs, leaving people without work. In theory, the machines will pay for it all by their level of productivity.
I don’t believe that myself. Once we have removed the human need to work, for many humans, they will not be needed and those in power will seek to eliminate humans which people won’t have the resources to prevent their elimination.
Sums it all up perfectly.
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