Poverty's Paradoxes and Intractable Dilemmas

The hottest political news at the end of January, 2001, were the stories about President Bush establishing, by Executive Order, the "Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives", and his push for allowing religious groups to receive public funds for social service efforts. Bush and his new Attorney General, Ashcroft, have been strong proponents for federal funding of "faith-based" charity organizations (in fact, Ashcroft, when he was a senator, was the prime mover of the "Charitable Choice" initiative in the "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996").

A study of the history of welfare programs reveals that the belief that, somehow, religious groups do much better in helping the poor is quite unfounded and, like every other idea that has been tried on this problem, will likely make it worse. The purpose of this essay is to examine the fundamental problems of poverty and welfare, to identify some of the intractable aspects of the problems, and make clear why these problems should not be left to the whims of politicians.

While the history of welfare is replete with failure, the results of the last 40 years are the most disastrous. President Johnson, in his Special Message to the Congress Proposing a Nationwide War on the Sources of Poverty, March 16, 1964, seemed determined to win (see box at right). Whether this was naivete or duplicity, I will leave to the reader to decide. In any case the result is a disastrous worsening of the poverty situation after spending over $8 trillion that was going to end it.

• Between 1965 and 2000, welfare spending cost taxpayers over $8 trillion (in constant 1999 dollars) -- Johnson's estimate of $970 million, not withstanding.
• From the start of the "Great Society" in 1964 to 1972, families on welfare tripled (approximately 1 million to 3 million). As a showing of appreciation to Johnson for this wonderful job, there was massive and bloody rioting in the ghettos of American cities, peaking in 1967.
• Out-of-Wedlock births for African-Americans, driven by welfare system rules, has grown from around 20% in the early '60s to nearly 70% in the '90s.
• The total state and federal annual spending for welfare programs has grown from approximately $40 billion in 1960 to $450 billion in 2000 and continues to increase in spite of the so-called "ending of welfare as we know it" legislation of 1996.
• From 1960 to 2000, the crime rate has tripled and the incarceration rate has increased by nearly 400 percent (another form of welfare?) -- see Charles Murray's "The Underclass Revisited". (Murray also has a book of the same title, available here.)
• At the start of the National School Lunch Program in 1946, there were approximately 7.1 million students that participated. By 1997 there were nearly 27 million participants in spite of an enormous increase in the economic well being of the country during that time (source, USDA "School Lunch Program - Fact Sheets"). Sadly, grades, nevertheless, went down.

The problem of how to humanely meet the needs of the members of society that cannot adequately take care of themselves is a very difficult one. This essay will attempt to bring out into the open the many difficult and often paradoxical issues associated with poverty and state or community provided welfare.

Any time an individual reacts with a group, paradoxes and dilemmas are immediately apparent. These diabolical difficulties are well known and have been discussed extensively in books and the academic journals. My web site, "A Rational Life" is devoted to this subject and provides extensive references to other resources for further study.

It is not surprising then that when an individual cannot make ends meet and must depend on the help of the group the individual is associated with, all the "individual/group" problems of normal interaction are in effect plus considerable more.

The fact that these problems are rarely discussed in a rational way by the public, the media, or the politicians is really no great surprise and absolutely no indication that the problems are not serious. There are various reasons why you are not exposed to an honest discussion, mostly political, but one serious reason is simply that the problems have difficult solutions or none at all. When such is the case, many people do not like to discuss it. The possibility that something might not have a solution is a hard pill to swallow. Think of it as something like getting a "16" in a game of Blackjack -- whatever you do, the odds are you're going to lose.

Background

The poor and unfortunate have always been with us. Up until recent times, the immediate family and community took care of those that were not doing well. In general, they recognized that they had two types of unfortunate -- those in which a true misfortune had happened and those that were lazy. They treated the two differently -- unlike most of the modern programs.

For various reasons -- too many to go into in this article -- the trend of government involvement has been away from the local, community, family responsibility toward the distant central authority. Progressively over time, government control has moved from city, to county, to state, and now to federal control.

While this trend may have solved some of the abuses that existed under local control, it has made worse many other problems; which is what much of this article is about.

The Poverty Predicament

Now let us examine some of the extreme difficulties associated with the poverty problem, its many paradoxes and dilemmas. While, in general, I do not claim to have solutions to these problems, I think their examination has considerable value in that it helps to understand why the government solutions have essentially a 100% failure rate - not all that surprising when we realize that all the attempted solutions are essentially politically motivated.

One note of caution here: one should not assume that just because the government has failed in solving poverty that private industry could succeed (given A or B, proving A wrong does not prove B right). For "welfare" is basically a "public good" and it is an economic fact that the free market generally fails in the provision of "public goods". For more, see "The Universal Welfare State as a Social Dilemma" by B Rothstein.

First off, the government has to deal with the vagueness problem. While you and I can just say, "this person is in dire straits and I think I will help her", that option is not available to the government. Due to the intrigues of politics, the laziness of the bureaucrats, and assorted other reasons, functions that are inherently vague and should be so treated, are converted to absolute functions by the imposition of an arbitrary break point. In the case of poverty, that breakpoint is the "poverty level".

• Defining poverty -- it is vague

  The basis for most of the handouts given to the recipients of government welfare is the so-called "poverty level". Now a rational person would no more try to make a black and white definition of poverty than she would "attractiveness", "good wine", or "obscenity on the internet". But the government, not known for its rationality, has decided that it can by a simple measure separate all of society into two camps, the poor and the non-poor (and can attempt to outlaw "obscenity" without defining it -- sigh).

  If you did try to define an absolute level of poverty, you would probably insist that it contain many parameters -- what kind of environment does the family live in, what is their health, what financial burdens do they have, what resources do they have, are they rural or city, what is the cost of living in their community, what other options do they have, what total income to they have, and on and on. Of course, the government chooses not to do that.

  No the government, for the most part, only looks at income! Particularly, they only consider "income" in what is called the "Poverty Guidelines" as issued by the "Department of Health and Human Services" (HHS). While that is just one of many definitions of poverty used by the government, it is generally the basis for most of the handouts (actually several programs have a qualification based on a multiple of the poverty level; anywhere from 1.5 to 3 times). Each state has its own definitions but they are generally about the same.

  The HHS, for year 2000, defines poverty in terms of income per family unit size. For a family unit size of 4, for instance, the level is set at $17,050. Now this begs at least two other questions; what is a "family unit" and what is "income"? In the HHS web page, a feeble attempt is made to define "family unit" but they have given up entirely on trying to define "income". I quote:

  Note that this notice no longer provides a definition of "income." This is for two reasons. First, there is no universal administrative definition of "income" that is valid for all programs that use the poverty guidelines. Second, in the past there has been confusion regarding important differences between the statistical definition of income and various administrative definitions of "income" or "countable income." The precise definition of "income" for a particular program is very sensitive to the specific needs and purposes of that program.

  Of course, this in no way prevents the thousands of agencies from using the "poverty guidelines" as a basis for dispensing billions of dollars.

  In summary then, we see that "poverty level" is an absolutely meaningless number, totally arbitrary in its value. For the population, we have annual incomes that vary from less than zero to several million. If you make a distribution plot of this, you will get something like a bell shaped curve (see the data -- in PDF files -- at the U.S. Census Bureau's "Statistical Abstract"). Chart #744 of the Statistical Abstract shows us that, as of 1997, in the lower ranges of income there are 7 or 8 million families in a range of $5,000 per annum. That is, if we move the poverty threshold up by another $5,000, another 8 million families become paupers -- by definition!

  With the triply ill-defined vagueness here (what is income, what is family, what is poverty level) we see that the government can have any number of people declared as paupers to provide a basis for whatever programs it wishes to foist on the taxpayers.

  We citizens have essentially lost control (if we ever had it) if the government can dispense billions of dollars annually on programs that are based on vague definitions with arbitrarily set levels.

  Once we have established who should be eligible for help -- based on some definition of poverty -- the next thing we need to address is what, if anything, we should do. The answer is not, and never has been, obvious.

• Helping the poor -- does it only worsen their situation?

  An issue rarely discussed in these times but which was a subject of great concern in the past is the "deserving poor vs. undeserving poor" (they were treated quite differently). Since by definition, the "deserving poor" have no choice about their situation, we can assume that they only accept welfare because they have to. The following comments then, are directed toward the "undeserving poor", which we assume will game the system if they can.

  A major unresolved problem in the theory of welfare is just exactly what can we do to improve the lot of the underclass. When you study the history of poverty programs you are struck by the realization that there is nothing new in the variety of programs being tried today -- it has all been tried before (An excellent survey of the history of the welfare state is provided by the book, From Poor Law to Welfare State, by Walter I. Trattner, copyright 1994, published by The Free Press. Also see "How Poverty Lost Its Meaning", by F. Allan Hanson, online.).

  We have tried everything from beating them and throwing them in prisons to overwhelming them with money and goods. Everything that has been tried has failed.

  • In the early Middle Ages, the poor were regarded with reverence, considered to be morally superior to the rich (see Hanson). Most relief to the poor was gladly provided by the churches and the well-to-do. Hundreds of "hospitals" provided medical care, food and housing for anyone in need.
    
  • For a variety of reasons, including political upheavals, famine, and the Black Death, by the 15th century, there was a tremendous increase in the poor and they had become a serious and unwelcome burden to society. The states began to take over and tended to treat the poor rather harshly. Anyone that could work but wouldn't was treated very harsh.
  • The famous Poor Law was passed in England in 1601. While it provided for some assistance, it also contained some very harsh stipulations. For example, vagrants that refused to work could be whipped, jailed, or even put to death.
  • In Colonial times in the U.S., care of the poor was left to the smallest unit of government, the town. This worked for awhile until the towns were overrun with poor, especially immigrants. When their resources were near exhaustion, things got nasty with some towns treating the poor very harshly, even worse than they treated their animals.
  • After the American Revolution, the state began to take over the care of the poor and the trend was toward institutionalization. During this time, with the influence of Darwin and others, an attitude developed toward the poor, based on the theory of evolution, that the human race could be improved if the unfit were allowed to suffer and die. After all, it was evident that with animals and plants, such and approach worked.
  • For a period of time, just before the Civil War, an attitude developed that the poor needed "moral enlightenment" -- not food. This, of course, did not set well with the poor.
  • The Civil War dumped a huge number of widows, orphans, sick and wounded soldiers, freed slaves, etc. on the U.S. society that forced the federal government to get involved, for a time, as it was too much for the states, especially the Southern states. However, the primary federal agency, the Freedman's Bureau, was dissolved in 1872, and care of the poor was returned to the states, not to be picked up by the federal government until the 20th century.
  • With the prosperity that followed the Civil War, the poor were once again regarded with contempt and given little support at a time when there seemed to be plenty of work. Further, Herbert Spencer, the English Philosopher, established the belief that science could solve the problem of poverty. Just as a wound of the body must ultimately heal itself, the Spenerians claimed that there was no remedy for poverty other than self-help. Protecting the poor in the struggle of life would only make things worse for them and society as a whole. "The only solution to poverty is 'nature's remedy -- work or starve'" said the magazine, Nation, in 1894.
  • The next major change to the welfare programs came in the 1930's during the Great Depression. The Federal Emergency Relief Act of 1933 provided states with $500 million in grants for unemployment relief. Control of the welfare programs remained with the states, however. Several other federal programs, including the Social Security Act, provided work or other relief for that terrible time. At least the funding of welfare had shifted to the federal level.
  • Finally, the present massive system was introduced by President Johnson in 1964. The approach of the present system is best described by a quote from a Johnson administrator, attributed by Marvin Olasky:

    "The way to eliminate poverty is to give the poor people enough money so that they won't be poor anymore." (page 6 of Hanson's paper)

    To learn more on the history of welfare, see Marvin Olasky's book, The Tragedy of American Compassion, 1992, Regnery Publishing. Further details on the current system are covered throughout this essay.

  From the above historical summary, we can draw a number of conclusions:

  "Welfare is hated by those who administer it, mistrusted by those who pay for it and held in contempt by those who receive it." -- Peter C Goldmark Jr, NY State Budget Director, (NY Times 24 May 77)

  • Up to this time, no one has come up with a politically acceptable solution to the poverty problem (more later on the issue of "political" solutions vs. "scientific" solutions).
    
  • As Hanson points out, there have been two major approaches to the solution to the poverty problem, "individual responsibility" and "systemic conditions beyond the control of the individual", both of which have been addressed from time to time. The tried approaches can be further classified as follows:
    • Systemic: Medieval Piety
    • Individualism: Renaissance
    • Individualism: Rise of Capitalism
    • Individualism: Social Darwinism
    • Systemic: State Welfare => The Great Society
    • Individualism & Systemic: 1996 Welfare to Work program
  • The trend has been away from "local" to "central government". Initially the family took care of its on; then the local church; then the cities; then the counties; then the states; and now the program is essentially controlled by the Federal government (via the purse strings).
  • The number of people needing welfare continues to grow as well as the cost of the program. This trend will continue indefinitely. For people, just like laboratory mice, do what they are rewarded for doing and avoid what they are punished for doing. The welfare system in place since the early '60s gives considerable rewards to being a pauper. I quote from the online essay, "THE WORK VERSUS WELFARE TRADE-OFF: An Analysis of the Total Level of Welfare Benefits by State", by Michael Tanner, Stephen Moore, and David Hartman:

    * In Hawaii, Alaska, Massachusetts, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, New York, and Rhode Island welfare pays more than a $12.00 an hour job--or two and a half times the minimum wage.

    * In nine states welfare pays more than the average first-year salary for a teacher. In 29 states it pays more than the average starting salary for a secretary. And in the six most generous states it pays more than the entry-level salary for a computer programmer.

    Security and medical benefits aren't bad either compared to the poor who actually work.

  • While the 1996 law, the "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act" (PRWORA), appears to be on the right track for it appears to be making welfare recipients go to work, one can never be sure of what is really going on (a careful and realistic evaluation is given by Lisa E. Oliphant in her paper, "Four Years of Welfare Reform: A Progress Report").

    The problem is what do we mean by work? Well for welfare purposes, it means, for the most part, jobs provided by businesses subsidized by the government, government work, or community service -- for at least 30 hours per week -- unless you get a waiver. Sounds a little suspect to me! I have great confidence that between the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the welfare recipients and the government bureaucrats, a way to get around this will be figured out!

  Let us call it like it is -- there just may very well not be a solution to the poverty problem. First off, let us agree that there are basically two types of people on welfare: the deserving poor (their situation is not their fault) and the undeserving poor (the lazy opportunists/ able-bodied and free to work). The issue of interest here is the undeserving poor, which is probably very much in the majority at this time of near full employment (what percentage the deserving poor are is not known and it varies with time and place).

  It is a problem of the "social dilemma" type, in particular, of the sub-class, "The Tragedy of the Commons". An individual that is of the underclass makes a rational decision to accept a government handout or not. I quote Charles Murray from his book, Losing Ground, page 162:

  There is no "breakdown of the work ethic" in this account of rational choices among alternatives... There is no need to invoke the spectres of cultural pathology or inferior upbringing. The choices may be seen much more simply, much more naturally, as the behaviour of people responding to the reality of the world around them.

  Every action that the government takes to help the poor provides incentive to the poor person to stay poor. That civil society will suffer in the long run and could even collapse is just not in the utility equation of the pauper. She is simply acting rationally to the alternatives presented to her.

  Apparently it is difficult to design a system of help that rewards the right behavior. For an example of what not to do, I quote Robert Rector from Chapter 7 of his online book, WELFARE: Expanding the Reform,

  The welfare system that has existed for the past 30 years may best be conceptualized as a system that offered each single mother with two children a "paycheck" of combined benefits worth an average of between $8,500 and $15,000, depending on the state. 14 The mother had a contract with the government. She would continue to receive her "paycheck" as long as she fulfilled two conditions:

  1. She must not work.

  2. She must not marry an employed male.

  Every benefit, then, is a reward for staying on welfare. So what do we do? To even consider such a question is to imagine that scientists of intelligent mind, after much research and thought, might find something that would work better -- and still be politically unacceptable, of course. Politicians have their on reasons for designing the programs the way they are and that consists mainly of "buying" votes. Nevertheless, we might imagine that a rational plan could be considered.

  To remove the encouragement for the poor to stay on welfare, it seems to me that we should look at the two extremes with regard to benefits: 1) Eliminate benefits altogether or 2) Provide the benefits to everyone without regard to means. Let us look at each.

  Eliminating benefits altogether is unacceptable because of the toll it would take on those who are poor due to no fault of their own. While Social Darwinists might argue that this would be best of society in the long run, there is essentially no possibility of any modern society adapting this approach even if the people believed or it could be proven that it would be best in the long run.

  Providing benefits to everyone without regard to means would eliminate the incentive to stay on the welfare dole. For an individual would be able to make even more money and to live better by working, having both the welfare check and the wages from the job. However this solution has the disadvantage of much greater cost and, more importantly, it is politically unacceptable. Sending money to the well off is just not going to happen in this country even if it was understood and could be proven that we would all be better off in the long run. Not even if it cost less money!

  Government administrators have experimented with schemes that contain a mixture of these two extreme approaches. For example, they might proportionally reduce welfare benefits as the income of the recipient increases. When you look at that persons total income, this scheme has the same effect as a very high marginal income tax rate. It is interesting that this effective tax rate can be as high as 100% which even exceeds the 90% rate that the wealthiest people in this country once enjoyed!

  Even if we could devise a system that would help the deserving poor and punish the fraudulent gamers, we still have a problem: what about the innocent children?

• The problem of children -- it is not their fault

  The most agonizing predicament is what to do about children. Consider the following scenario: A welfare mother, unmarried with one or more boyfriends that may change from time to time, living in government housing, buying her groceries with food stamps and spending as much of her welfare check as she can on drugs and alcohol. She now has 4 kids that more or less fend for themselves and has been told by her friends that the government will pay her an additional $175 a month for each additional child she has (varies by the state) plus additional food stamps and other benefits. Medical care is provided by Medicaid.

  What can we do to punish her for her abuses without punishing the children? Sadly, our government has a history of ignoring the disastrous impact on children when it is in the act of punishing adults (in spite of all the soundbites, "it is for the children" -- sigh). Note our activities in Iraq and Cuba and the disastrous "War on Drugs". Nevertheless it is difficult to perceive a way to avoid the problem of hurting the children, short of removing them to an orphanage or some such.

  The public has pressured congress into trying to reduce the incentive to have children and the 1996 Welfare Reform act has provisions to encourage states to try to limit such "child-bearing for profit" activities. But what should the administrators really do? Should they cut off welfare or at least not increase it if the welfare mother has another child? That is what some states are trying to do. But who does this punish? I suggest that the children will suffer the most.

  At this point we might ask, what is the "greater common good"? Providing food, housing, and a good home to children is a major justification by the government for many of their welfare programs. The stated logic is that if we help out a child then that child will be less likely to grow up to be a criminal which would seem to save society a lot of expense. So, then, how does withholding welfare support for these "excess" children make for a "greater common good"? A case can be made that putting the child in foster homes also does not serve the "greater common good". Surely we could find a way to punish the mother without punishing the children.

  Once we have decided how to deal with the poor, the issue that must be addressed is how do we pay for it. We have tried both government solutions (forced transfer of wealth) and private contribution in the past. Many feel that a mixture of the two doesn't quite add up.

• Losing contributions from private contributors when Government takes over

  What happens to private contributing when the government gets involved? There are two aspects to answering this question.

  First, government funding of welfare is destructive to private incentive to help. As a youth, I saw many examples of the community helping someone in hardship or bad luck. Examples cover the range of food baskets all the way to a house being built for a widow whose previous home burnt. That doesn't happen much anymore. We all know that a poor person has "free" medical care, food stamps, shelter, and supplemental income. Further we know that we have already been hit hard to pay for this when we paid our income tax. To most of us, this discourages direct contribution. I believe this is damaging to the ethical and moral quality of our community.

  Secondly, there is the impact on the amount of contributions we are willing to make to charities. While the exact impact is not known, studies have shown that there is as much as a 1 to 1 "crowding out" (see for example, "SOURCES OF SUPPORT FOR CHARITY, GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS, AND INCOME REDISTRIBUTION") when government starts picking up the tab.

  Tax write-offs are not the issue for the great philanthropists, Carnegie, et al, made their contributions before there was actually a big tax benefit. Even today, it is not clear that the tax write-off is all that great of a benefit.

  Now we have President Bush proposing that much of the welfare money be channeled through religious organizations. Economically this might make sense due to the 70% overhead of government organizations. That is, if they can do any better -- there is some claim that private organizations, once on the government dole, also degenerate into inefficient and somewhat bureaucratic organizations.

  Unfortunately, this is a large and complicated subject with parameters such as marginal tax rate, overhead rate, "crowding out" rate, etc. that are way too much for this paper.

  But even if we are not expert economists we can see that private charities at least seem to have their economic advantages. Now the problem is, how do we get the government to cut back?

• Reducing government costs -- always costs more

  In a House of Representatives document, "Child Care for American Families", a concern is expressed about the states not spending all the money sent them: There have also been questions raised about the need for additional child care funding, given the incomplete use of existing child care funds in recent years. In FY 1997, for example, states spent only 72 percent of their allocated funds for that year. However, in FY 1998, state spending has accelerated dramatically and the majority of the FY 1997 funding has been spent. ... It is not surprising that many state systems were initially in flux. This appears to have been worked out, however, and state systems have likely acquired the capacity to spend additional child care funding. (emphasis added)

  An historical analysis of government programs reveals that with few exceptions, cost cutting actions against government programs always results in increased costs. The rule is that "It costs money to reduce costs". A good example is the 1996 Welfare to Work law (PRWORA). This highly praised action by Congress intended to move everyone that is able to work off welfare and into a job. There are indications that the program has had some success in doing this (it may be somewhat illusionary). Nevertheless, the cost of the welfare programs continues to rise. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the Welfare program costs will continue to rise at about 5% per year for the next 5 years (see Robert Rector's essay, "Welfare: Expanding the Reform"). Since the 1996 Welfare to Work law (PRWORA) has, for several states, actually succeeded in dramatically reducing welfare rolls , the states now are frantically searching for ways to spend all this money pouring in from Washington! See the adjoining box.

  So, what justification does Washington have for spending even more money on welfare now that reform seems to be working? Well, to move people off work requires that you provide training and jobs. Other benefits may also be necessary such as child care. In fact Congress partially justified its increased subsidies for child care on the observation that there are a lot more young single mothers now that have babies than there used to be!

  All that costs piles of money. Business as usual.

  Of course the real problem is not the welfare recipients but the administrators. Just because we have fewer welfare cases is no reason to go crazy and start laying off bureaucrats! Since most of the cost of welfare goes for administration and doesn't actually end up in welfare checks, you can see that the costs will continue to increase. I quote from Michael Tanner's "Replacing Welfare":

  Private charity also has a better record of actually delivering aid to recipients. Surprisingly little of the money being spent on federal and state social welfare programs actually reaches recipients. In 1965, 70 cents of every dollar spent by the government to fight poverty went directly to poor people. Today, 70 cents of every dollar goes, not to poor people, but to government bureaucrats and others who serve the poor. Few private charities have the bureaucratic overhead and inefficiency of government programs.

  Almost without exception, every new program foisted on the public pocket book by the politicians comes with the claim that it will save us piles of money in the long run. Typical is the statement made by President Johnson in his 1964 "War on Poverty" speech, "And in the future, as in the past, this investment will return its cost many fold to our entire economy." Oh really. Didn't seem to happen.

  But the argument makes sense -- prudent spending now should save costs in the future. Many examples come to mind:

  • Providing a good home to children should take them off the streets and improve the chance that they will not be spending their lives in crime. Makes sense but somehow didn't work. Crime increased right along with welfare spending.
  • Providing "Family Planning Services", a.k.a. "Reproductive Health Services", at a Federal cost of around $200 million per year, should have resulted in a reduction in the birth rate of unwed mothers. It didn't, the rate increased -- see Rector's essay, "Welfare: Broadening the Reform".
  • Every year, since computers came into existence, the government makes claims that more money is needed for new computers because they are faster, provide more functionality and will likely save more money than they cost. Surely, by now, productivity is up a hundred times over what it was before computers came into usage. Have you noticed a dramatic decrease in the count of government employees? No, their population continues to grow, every year, in spite of Al Gore's claims to the contrary (see my essay, "More Gorey Stories")
  • I could go on, but surely you get the picture. Government programs always cost more -- even programs to cut the cost of programs, cost more.

  Making the poor earn their own keep would help the economics a lot but -- sigh -- there's problems there too.

• Putting poor to work puts others out of work

  A major political impasse in the effort to help the poor and a major reason why nothing is really accomplished is the possibility that when paupers are put to work that means less jobs for the rest of us. That, of course, will not do -- they can just stay unemployed and poor. (A similar situation is true in the rehabilitation of prisoners. We really can't put prisoners to doing productive work and learning a useful trade, for it would put others out of work). It is an extremely challenging dilemma for the welfare reformers to find some job that the poor can do without upsetting some already gainfully employed workers.

  After consideration of these and other issues we realize that for every action we take to help the poor there will be pluses and minuses. Ultimately, it gets down to what helps society the most.

• Complications regarding achieving the "greatest common good"

  There is a great deal of confusion and inconsistency regarding the achieving the "greatest common good".

  First we need to consider: is that the goal of government and should it be? The answer is a qualified yes. Government does justify its involvement into such programs as an attempt to improve the common good. But they are not real consistent in the application of that principle. Basically, they pursue an action that would result in a greater common good only if it is "politically correct" to pursue that action.

  Presumably, the actions they took at Ruby Ridge and the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco, were for the greater common good. In general, a case can be made that much of punishment, including the death penalty, is to set an example to the rest of society which makes for a better common good. However, the government seems to be very reluctant to apply relatively harsh measures to welfare recipients even if it is highly probable that society as a whole would improve. They, for example, avoid making the recipients of welfare do difficult common labor or demeaning tasks. Historically, while paupers were not allowed to perish, nevertheless they were not quite treated as royalty. In fact their lives were still harsh and their work very difficult. Such difficult tasks were even required in Roosevelt's programs in the 1930s but, alas, they are no longer considered acceptable.

  The question of when and how to apply programs that "improve the common good" is a question loaded with land mines. It brings to mind such proposals as the castration of confirmed child molesters, using death row inmates to test new drugs, euthanasia, and other such ideas that we are forbidden to talk about. My point is, it is an extremely dangerous concept, too dangerous to be put in the hands of politicians. Yet, that is in fact the basis for many programs involving welfare. An example of course, is the termination of welfare benefits to a mother who abuses drugs. This punishes the mother supposedly for "the betterment of the common good" since others will hopefully not follow her example. Unfortunately, as discussed above, this action also punishes her children and would seem to "worsen the common good". Apparently the calculation of the value of the "common good" is not simple.

If you would like to learn more about the major issues of poverty -- politics, human nature, availability of jobs, etc. see Lawrence Mead's excellent book, The New Politics of Poverty, 1992, Basic Books.

Conclusion: Politics vs. Science

There are some things that politicians can handle without doing major damage to the citizens. Roads, dams, space exploration, and setting flush limits on commodes come to mind. Sure, there is a lot of waste and vote buying pork, but such programs rarely endanger the masses.

But there are other societal issues that are just too complicated and dangerous to be left to the politicians and their selfish manipulations. Welfare is probably number one in that category. Allowing the politicians to determine welfare policies has been disastrous. The politicians don't just waste money, they destroy lives. Addiction to welfare, living in crime and squalor, fatherless homes for children, class hatred, are all just part of the price that millions pay as a result of politicians promoting their own selfish agendas.

While the solution to the poverty predicament is obviously very complex, there is little doubt that we could do much better. Social scientists have built up a great knowledge on the science of animal and human behavior. In fact, the government has spent many millions of dollars supporting thousands of studies in this area. Yet, when it comes to deciding what should be done, or at least tried, politics always determines the answer; without, of course, ever looking at the studies that they paid for. Since millions of votes are at stake that can be impacted by various welfare policies, the politician will do whatever she thinks will maximize her vote count and her control -- whatever the cost to humanity.

References:

• An outstanding list of references: "Literature on Poverty and Welfare" at http://ethics.sandiego.edu/Applied/poverty/poverty.html
• Dan Bloom, After AFDC, online book at http://www.mdrc.org/Reports/AfterAFDC/After%20AFDC.htm
• F. Allan Hanson's online essay, "How Poverty Lost Its Meaning"
• Hazlitt, Henry, The Conquest of Poverty, online book at http://mises.org/books/conquest.pdf
• Mead, Lawrence M., The New Politics of Poverty: The Nonworking Poor in America, Basic Books, Inc. [1992]
• Charles Murray, Losing Ground, Basic Books, [1984]
• William A. Niskanen's online essay, "WELFARE AND THE CULTURE OF POVERTY"
• Marvin Olasky, The Tragedy of American Compassion, 1992, Regnery Publishing
• Lisa E. Oliphant's online essay, Four Years of Welfare Reform: A Progress Report
• Two essays by Robert Rector, Senior Policy Analyst, The Heritage Foundation: "WELFARE: Expanding the Reform" and "WELFARE: Broadening the Reform"
• Walter I. Trattner, From Poor Law to Welfare State, copyright 1994, published by The Free Press.
• Thomas G. West's online essay, "Poverty and the Welfare State"

Copyright 2001 by Leon Felkins. All rights reserved.

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