It isn't difficult to solve official poverty, it simply takes greater morals and ethics than we can currently muster even with a McCarthy era phrase in our pledge.
Currently, social security is the best example of public policy that pays people to not provide labor input to the economy while solving for poverty among that segment of the population.
Quote:
Social Security reduces the proportion of elderly people living in poverty from nearly one in two to fewer than one in eight, according to a new study released today of Census data. The study found that in 1997, nearly half of all elderly people — 47.6 percent — had incomes below the poverty line before receipt of Social Security benefits. After receiving Social Security benefits, only 11.9 percent remained poor.
As a result, the study said, Social Security raised out of poverty more than one in every three elderly Americans. The program lifted 11.4 million elderly people above the poverty line.
Without Social Security, the study found, 15.3 million elderly had incomes below the poverty line. After Social Security, only 3.8 million elderly did. Three-fourths of those elderly people who would have been poor without Social Security were lifted from poverty by it.
Source: Social Security and Poverty Among the Elderly - Embargoed Press Release - 4/8/99
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07-26-2009
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