Poverty in the United States : Developing Social Welfare Policy for the Twenty-First Century

## Illustrations TA T T BLES 1.1 Poverty measures: Official, supplemental, and relative 3.1 Estimated employer contribution rates, calendar year 2013 3.2 Average weekly UI benefits, maximum weekly UI benefits, and average UI replacement rate 4.1 Average monthly SSI payment, by eligibility category, age, and source of payment, October 2013 5.1 Maximum EITC payment by tax year and number of qualifying children 5.2 Summary of the SNAP program BOX O O ES 3.1 Computing Social Security benefit payments 3.2 Greenspan Commission recommendations 5.1 2014 expected EITC guidelines 5.2 Child Tax Credit 6.1 The Food Stamp (SNAP) tangle FIGURES 1.1 Poverty rates by age: 1960-2012 1.2 Poverty status by age and alternate poverty measures 3.1 Percentage of Social Security benefit payments 4.1 TANF spending by category 4.2 Percentage of TANF families receiving g 4.3 Employment status TANF families 4.4 Percentage of children in poverty believed in a social welfare system that reflected the "newer values." It is therefore fitting that this book be dedicated to Bill Friday, not in his memory, but to the legacy he left the rest of us, to enshrine social welfare as the jewel in America's crown. This book attributes American poverty to consequences 19th Century social welfare policies within an economy stretching to meet its 21st Century economic potential, arguing that American poverty persists as economic and political structures have moved into the world of fiscal planning but social welfare remains in its Depression-era structure. America's Great Recession has provoked a twenty-first century awareness of her costly social welfare commitments, failure to protect Americans in times of broad-based economic disaster, and longstanding inability to reduce poverty. Arguing that historic social rehabilitation efforts to confront longstanding American poverty have failed, and by concentrating on the cash support obligations America has undertaken, this book refocuses the poverty debate on an overburdened social welfare system deprived of a sufficient political and economic foundation to support its commitments. American capitalism has refashioned itself to meet today's global economic challenges, often at the expense of economically disadvantaged citizens, while the social welfare system remains chained to principles that fail to narrate American poverty. Economic need is no longer a story of personal failure; poverty has become a macroeconomic construct, and work no longer provides the poor with the path to economic independence. Only by refashioning America's social insurances, her commitments to welfare assistance, and her inadequate efforts to support low wage employment will America join the ranks of companion advanced nations in bringing poverty under control Cover 1 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Illustrations 8 Preface 10 Introduction 14 Part I Poverty: America’s Shame 23 1. Poverty’s Elusive Heredity . 24 2. A New Capitalist Order Needs a New Social Welfare Mandate . 44 Part II The Cash Support Programs: New Wine in Old Bottles 65 3. The Social Insurances . 66 4. Cash Support Assistance Programs . 88 5. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Earned Income Tax Credit . 111 Part III Integration of Social Welfare and the American Economy to Reduce Poverty 131 6. Developing a New Social Welfare Structure 132 Appendix I.1 153 Appendix 1.1 155 Appendix 3.1 158 Appendix 6.1 159 Notes 160 Bibliography 182 Index 189 Front Matter....Pages i-xii Introduction....Pages 1-9 Front Matter....Pages 11-11 Poverty’s Elusive Heredity....Pages 13-32 A New Capitalist Order Needs a New Social Welfare Mandate....Pages 33-53 Front Matter....Pages 55-55 The Social Insurances....Pages 57-78 Cash Support Assistance Programs....Pages 79-101 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Earned Income Tax Credit....Pages 103-122 Front Matter....Pages 123-123 Developing a New Social Welfare Structure....Pages 125-145 Back Matter....Pages 147-201