Perverse incentive produced by welfare

Discussion in 'Politics' started by L-Kabong, Dec 8, 2012.

  1. Profiting From a Child’s Illiteracy by Nicholas Kristof

    THIS is what poverty sometimes looks like in America: parents here in Appalachian hill country pulling their children out of literacy classes. Moms and dads fear that if kids learn to read, they are less likely to qualify for a monthly check for having an intellectual disability.

    Many people in hillside mobile homes here are poor and desperate, and a $698 monthly check per child from the Supplemental Security Income program goes a long way — and those checks continue until the child turns 18.

    “The kids get taken out of the program because the parents are going to lose the check,” said Billie Oaks, who runs a literacy program here in Breathitt County, a poor part of Kentucky. “It’s heartbreaking.”

    This is painful for a liberal to admit, but conservatives have a point when they suggest that America’s safety net can sometimes entangle people in a soul-crushing dependency. Our poverty programs do rescue many people, but other times they backfire.

    Some young people here don’t join the military (a traditional escape route for poor, rural Americans) because it’s easier to rely on food stamps and disability payments.

    Antipoverty programs also discourage marriage: In a means-tested program like S.S.I., a woman raising a child may receive a bigger check if she refrains from marrying that hard-working guy she likes. Yet marriage is one of the best forces to blunt poverty. In married couple households only one child in 10 grows up in poverty, while almost half do in single-mother households.

    Most wrenching of all are the parents who think it’s best if a child stays illiterate, because then the family may be able to claim a disability check each month.

    “One of the ways you get on this program is having problems in school,” notes Richard V. Burkhauser, a Cornell University economist who co-wrote a book last year about these disability programs. “If you do better in school, you threaten the income of the parents. It’s a terrible incentive.”


    continued......
    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/o...-from-a-childs-illiteracy.html?pagewanted=all
     
  2. jem

    jem

    sort of intriguing.
     
  3. nice to see you can occasionally get your head outta your ass.
     
  4. That article is true. I've seen this first hand. The mother used to hide the kids shoes so they ended up missing school. They failed classes. Eventually most of the brood dropped out but she still got the checks. Spent the money buying shit on QVC.
     
  5. The whole country will be getting more and more retarded if this goes on.
     
  6. Let's hope the program discourages pro-creation too. Then this "problem" will eventually go away. :( :)
     
  7. There is a bright spot (ha ha).

    When the entire school is filled with retards. The school cannot afford the required services provided by law if they classify the kids as learning disabled. So they refuse to classify any. Subsequently, no one gets help and all the kids fail.
     
  8. back in the day, disabled kids were schooled together, problem with that is they breed. Hence mainstream the retards so they can breed with the "C" students.

    how'd this work out? I'm glad you asked. Phase 2 of this project became known as "everyone gets a trophy" or "don't call me a retard, I have self esteem, whatever that is but fer sure I can't speel it".


    How'd this work out? I'm glad you asked. This manifests into the "super senior" What is a "super senior?" A super senior is 18- 21 yo students in 12th grade with a 6th grade education.

    How'd this work out? I'm glad you asked. These super seniors became democrats and Obama was elected.
     
  9. Actually, Back in the Day, those with real problems were moved to another class, where they could be taught at the levels they were able to handle. Not interfering, sorry to sound hateful, with the main stream students. Why is that not happening any longer? Can't afford Special Education do be done properly? Screw that, it costs a lot more to screw up a whole class for the benefit of a couple of kids. Yet those kids need special help, give it to them, but keep them out of the 25 kid classrooms. I apologize to my ultra liberal friends, but this is nonsense.
     
  10. Agree Mr Bill...
     
    #10     Dec 10, 2012