Liberal Mission Accomplished!Follow

Hooray!

On to Phase IX!

I was going to write a scathing and witty reply referencing GWBs Mission Accomplished moment, but then I read the linked article and realised that ThiefX is still a f'cking moron with a reading comprehension deficiency and that I didn't need to bother myself with it.

Who ever claimed that welfare fixes poverty? 'Cos if you can show me that person, I'll show you an (another)idiot.

Fix, as in conceptually? Maybe not. But given that economic measurements in most countries count government assistance as "income" in their poverty calculations, there is clearly an assumption that it removes poverty or eliminates it from the individual who receives it.


You're correct though, what it does most effectively is increase the rate of poverty within a society, while masking the effects of poverty. Of course, I'm using a definition of poverty which assumes we only count what people earn without government assistance designed specifically to address the effects of not having enough money. Kind of a catch-22 for you though...

Poverty actually doesn't have much to with dollar figures (or microdollar figures.) It is not only a lack of money, it's a lack of resources. Things that Americans take for granted. Poverty encompasses homelessness, lack of clean drinking water, lack of a steady food supply, lack of shelter, lack of physical mobility (very poor people have no where else to go) and often a lack of any financial resources or assistance.

Most people want to work. They want to contribute, they want to be able to feed their families. They want to be able to support themselves. You know the Bangladeshi dude that won the Nobel prize a few years back in economics? His area was in the form of micro-loans. Loaning a little money to someone who had absolutely nothing - no assets and no credit - so they could start their own business. In those poverty stricken areas, where no US bank would bother touching, a loan as small as $20 can help someone get on their feet. Despite his customer base having no income or assets, he's able to get a guaranteed return rate of 95%, because the system uses peer pressure within the small villages. They only allow so many loans at a time, and some people have to pay them back before anyone else can take out a loan. You're a lot more willing to return borrowed money if the person who sells you eggs every morning can't buy a new henhouse until you do.

But while the micro-lending starts these people on the road to self-sufficiency, it still won't prevent them from getting cholera if their village well is contaminated. They need government assistance for that - they need infrastructure. Without infrastructure, even if they have shelter and food and an income, they're still considered poor.