The Failed War on Poverty: Why the Government Cannot and Should Not Address Poverty.

An essay on the role of government in meeting out obligations to the poor that I presented at SPS 2018. The footnotes are in the first two comments

[philkallberg]

1. Christian Schemmel, "How (Not) to Criticise the Welfare State, " Journal of Applied Philosophy 32, no. 4 (November 1, 2015): 395.
2. “Korpi W. and Palme J. talk about five types of welfare state: poor-targeted, voluntary state subsidized, corporatist, basic security and encompassing (Korpi, Palme, 1998: 667). In the first model, poor-targeted, eligibility is based on a means-test, paying minimum benefits to those being below the poverty line. The second model is based on voluntary contributions, advantaging more the middle class and the skilled workers than unskilled and poor individuals. The third concerns the active population, the benefits depending on previous earnings. Programs are funded by employees and employers contributions. The fourth model, of basic security is centered on Beveridge ideas. Benefits are granted in uniform rate, and the rich people appeal to private insurance. All insured are covered by the same program. The last model combines the ideas of Bismarck and Beveridge. Universal programs are combined with benefits dependent on previous earnings.” Claudia Florina Radu, "Ways of Income Redistribution in Society, " Scientific Journal of Humanistic Studies 4, no. 6 (March 2012): 230.
3. Arthur C. Brooks, "The Dignity Deficit." Foreign Affairs 96, no. 2 (March 2017): 106.
4. Brooks, "The Dignity Deficit." 107.
5. Brooks, "The Dignity Deficit." 107.
6. If you have any serious doubt of this responsibility I suggest you read the following passages. James 1:27, Psalm 82:3–4, Isaiah 1:17, Matthew 25.
7. 1 Peter 2:17, Romans 13:1-7.
8. Brooks, "The Dignity Deficit." 107.
9. Brooks, "The Dignity Deficit." 108.
10. Veronique de Rugy, "Bursting the Pentagon Spending Bubble, " Reason 48, no. 4, (August 2016): 14.
11. Matt Welch, "Debt Denialists, " Reason 48, no. 5 (October 2016): 22.
12. It is important to note that even when “public aid” is defined broadly additional costs from these programs don’t even come close to the cost of mandatory spending. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid account for the vast majority of the cost.
13. Roger L Ray, Progressive Faith and Practice: Thou Shalt Not Stand Idly By (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014), 77.
16. While noting that this is partially true, I reject this argument because the vast majority of people receive much more money back from Social Security than they paid into it. So while the entire amount of Social Security is not just “the government handing out money” most of it is. “What really happens [with Social Security] is that the taxes deducted from workers’ paychecks by the government are placed into the Trust Fund, and then immediately doled out to the current batch of retirees. Once today’s generation of works retires, their children will pay for their Social Security checks with their taxes . . . Social Security is, in essence, a Ponzi scheme. Like all Ponzi schemes, it works just fine- so long as the intake of new participants continues to increase.” Jonathan V. Last, What to Expect when no one's Expecting: America's coming Demographic Disaster (New York: Encounter Books 2013), 107.
17. And I have relied on those wiser and more knowledgeable people for my estimates.
18. This claim would be difficult to prove in the strong sense of prove, but as the US is the wealthiest nation in history, and the government spends approximately 2/3 of its resources on public aid it seems to follow that the US spends more money here than any other nation ever has.
19. Brooks, "The Dignity Deficit." 108.
21. Brooks, "The Dignity Deficit." 108.
22. Sarah D. Sparks, "50 Years Later, Verdicts Are Mixed On the Nation's War on Poverty, " Education Week 33, no. 18 (January 22, 2014): 14.
23. Patrick M. Garry, "Conservatism and the Real Problems of Income Inequality, " Modern Age 58, no. 1 (2016): 14.
25. Census Bureau, Income and Poverty, 12.
26. Census Bureau, Income and Poverty, 43.
27. This is a general statement. There certainly are individual people who can credit public aid as helping them to rise out of poverty, but in general the government is just unable to make much of a dent in poverty.
28. Lowell E. Gallaway, and Daniel G. Garrett. "The Unintended Consequences of the War on Poverty, " CATO Journal 36, no. 1 (Winter2016 2016): 35.
29. Gallaway, and Garrett, “Unintended Consequences of the War on Poverty, ” 36.
30. Brian Griffiths, The Creation of Wealth: A Christian's Case for Capitalism (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1984), 13.
31. Charles A. Murray, Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980 (New York: Basic Books, 1984), 212.
32. Now of course there are people who need public aid due to situations like a permanent debilitating injury which means they permanently have little or no other options. As such public aid to them will not increase the net value of their position, but situations like this are exceptional.
33. A good essay on general nature of unintended consequences and the U.S. Government is “Unintended Consequences” and the book The Tyranny of Good Intentions covers the unintended consequences of laws and the U.S. justice system. Steven M. Gillon, "Unintended Consequences, " Futurist 35, no. 2 (April-March 2001): 49-55. Paul C. Roberts, and Lawrence M. Stratton, The Tyranny of Good Intentions: How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice (Roseville, CA: Forum, 2000).
34. Last, “What to Expect, ” 46-47.
36. Rector, "Welfare Undermines Marriage.”
37. Rector, "Welfare Undermines Marriage.”
38. Gillon, "Unintended Consequences, ” 49.
39. Neil Waldron, "The Entitlement Crisis: How the Private Sector Can Solve the Problem, " Managed Care Outlook 21, no. 22 (November 15, 2008): 1.

[ericpham]

Weapon manufacturing are to be sued for poverty or they have to kill more to cover the cost