Derek Thompson at The Atlantic writes—Busting the Myth of ‘Welfare Makes People Lazy’:
“Welfare makes people lazy.” The notion is buried so deep within mainstream political thought that it can often be stated without evidence. It was explicit during the Great Depression, when Franklin D. Roosevelt’s WPA (Works Progress Administration) was nicknamed “We Piddle Around” by his detractors. It was implicit in Bill Clinton’s pledge to “end welfare as we know it.” Even today, it is an intellectual pillar of conservative economic theory, which recommends slashing programs like Medicaid and cash assistance, partly out of a fear that self-reliance atrophies in the face of government assistance.
Many economists have for decades argued that this orthodoxy is simply wrong—that wisely designed anti-poverty programs, like the Earned Income Tax Credit, actually increase labor participation. And now, across the world, a fleet of studies are converging on the consensus that even radical welfare programs—including basic-income programs and what are called conditional cash transfers—don’t make people any less productive. [...]
Take, for example, the striking finding from a new paper from researchers at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago. They analyzed a Mexican program called Prospera, the world’s first conditional cash-transfer system, which provides money to poor families on the condition that they send their children to school and stay up to date on vaccinations and doctors’ visits. In 2016, Prospera offered cash assistance to nearly 7 million Mexican households.
In the paper, researchers matched up data from Prospera with data about households’ incomes to analyze for the first time the program’s effect on children several decades after they started receiving benefits. The researchers found that the typical young person exposed to the program for seven years ultimately completed three more years of education and was 37 percent more likely to be employed. That’s not all: Young Prospera beneficiaries grew up to become adults who worked, on average, nine more hours each week than similarly poor children who weren’t enrolled in the program. They also earned higher hourly wages. [...]
• What’s coming up on Sunday Kos …
- Hey NRA, you will not get a dime of my money, by Mark E Andersen
- Women in Vieques, Puerto Rico, lead the fight against US Navy contamination of their island, by Denise Oliver Velez
- Progressives: Confront reality. We reflect the population at large and must cleanse from within, by Egberto Willies
- Health care is still the number one economic issue (and other data from the Economic Anxiety Index), by David Akadjian
- Who ISN’T corrupt in the Trump White House, by Sher Watts Spooner
- The ‘Trump Effect’ of rising hate and intolerance is growing, by Frank Vyan Walton
- Back to the 50s, barefoot and pregnant, by Susan Grigsby
- International Elections Digest: Anti-populists make big gains in Italian election, by Daily Kos Elections
- Republican war on women's rights rolls on with multiple attacks on Planned Parenthood, by Ian Reifowitz
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BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2011—Wisconsin legislator files complaint over Walker’s stealthy union-busting vote:
Madison's Cap Times:
Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, filed a complaint Thursday morning with the Dane County district attorney charging that the Joint Conference Committee that convened at 6 p.m. Wednesday and passed an amended version of Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill is in violation of the open meetings law.
Earlier, former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, who now represents AFSCME, said it was "clear...on it's face" that the conference committee meeting was violated Wisconsin's open meetings law which requires twenty-four hours public notice. The meeting last night was held after less than two hours of notice, far short of the statutory requirement. Even if courts conclude that the meeting was held in violation of the law, it isn't a guarantee that their action will be voided. But at the very least, it gives opponents of the legislation a cause of action to keep the the fight against the legislation alive even as recall efforts pick up steam.
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