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Welfare & The Federal Government
Duke Political Union – Duke Chronicle
We are constantly inundated with information about our nation’s poor, our welfare recipients and socio-economic decline. What has happened to our society and led so many fellow citizens into dire inter-generational poverty? How can we help them without bankrupting the federal government?
Poverty in America is generally caused by the breakdown of the nuclear family and a lack of education. Both of these contribute to the cycle of poverty, entrenching hundreds of thousands of American families to lives of need. Before the spike in single parenting and teen pregnancy, there was drastically less poverty even when controlling for socioeconomic class and race.
With the help of state funding, programs can provide job training, educational assistance, housing aid and drug rehabilitation. The key to embracing these local programs is their emphasis on the entire family. Many such programs help parents keep their jobs or return to school while providing childcare, community services and educational help for their children. Recently, a bill was introduced by Representatives Young and Delaney to Congress to create social impact bonds (SIB) which provide rebates to successful state and local nonprofits who can prove a sustained commitment to help local, poor communities. Federalized legislation like the SIB Act will allow more tailored solutions to America’s poverty problem.