1. Poverty & Excessive Inequality
Lecture 15
March 15, 2018
Solutions to
Poverty & Excessive Inequality
If one rejects “Blame the victim” and accepts that a significant cause of poverty and inequality is structural, then solutions to poverty need to themselves be mainly structural. This doesn’t mean that there are no issues connected to poverty that have to do with individual responsibility and individual attributes, but those individualistic aspects of the problem are secondary. Their consequences for the lives of people depend on structural circumstances.
The most morally pressing issue is the poverty of children in a rich society. Poverty in the midst of plenty is troubling enough, but when it is the poverty of children who clearly bear no responsibility for their plight, the injustice cannot be evaded. Remember how I defined injustice: This is UNFAIR and WE COULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
But what?
Conventional response = “welfare”

2. What is Government “Welfare”?
Government Welfare is any government subsidy to a particular group of people which provides them with an economic benefit that they would not have had if things were just left to the market.

3. What is Government “Welfare”?
Government Welfare is any government subsidy to a particular group of people which provides them with an economic benefit that they would not have had if things were just left to the market.

4. Two main forms of welfare spending
1. Direct government spending: food stamps, public housing, cash transfers
2. Tax Subsidies: mortgage deductions, earned income tax credit for working poor, tax deductions for business expenses
Explain how a tax subsidy works

5. Examples of welfare for already privileged social groups

6. Examples of welfare for already privileged social groups
Students: tuition subsidies

7. Examples of welfare for already privileged social groups
Students: tuition subsidies
Homeowners: mortgage deduction – 48% of mortgage subsidies go to top 20% of income distribution. Mortgage subsidy is more than 4 times the spending on public housing for the poor.

8. Examples of welfare for already privileged social groups
Students: tuition subsidies
Homeowners: mortgage deduction – 48% of mortgage subsidies go to top 20% of income distribution. Mortgage subsidy is more than 4 times the spending on public housing for the poor.
Farm subsidies: Around $30 billion a year: 80% goes to corporate agriculture, NOT family farmers.
Corporations: “Corporate welfare” = $75 Billion/year

9. Examples of welfare for already privileged social groups
Students: tuition subsidies
Homeowners: mortgage deduction – 48% of mortgage subsidies go to top 20% of income distribution. Mortgage subsidy is more than 4 times the spending on public housing for the poor.
Farm subsidies: Around $30 billion a year: 80% goes to corporate agriculture, NOT family farmers.
Corporations: “Corporate welfare” = $75 Billion/year

10. Examples of “Corporate Welfare”
(from the conservative Cato Institute’s “Handbook for Congress”)
The Energy Department's Energy Supply Research and Development Program ($2.7 billion a year) aims to develop new energy technologies and improve on existing technologies.
Commerce Department's Advanced Technology Program ($200 million a year) gives research grants to consortiums of some of the nation's largest high-tech companies.
The Export-Import Bank ($700 million a year) provides subsidized financing to foreign purchasers of U.S. goods.
Overseas Private Investment Corporation ($70 million a year) provides direct loans, guaranteed loans, and political risk insurance to U.S. firms that invest in developing countries.
Note: These may be fully justified and socially beneficial programs. But they are public subsidies – welfare for corporations. The Cato Institute objects to all of these. I think some are probably a good thing.

11. four kinds of structural proposals
Solutions to Poverty:
four kinds of structural proposals
Make the minimum wage a living wage
Partially decouple standards of living from market earnings: the social wage: Universal health care, good subsidized day care, public libraries & swimming pools, free universities, etc.
2. Partially decouple paid employment from capitalist markets: public sector jobs.
3. Partially decouple income from earnings
Asset development accounts
Unconditional Basic Income

12. four kinds of structural proposals
Solutions to Poverty:
four kinds of structural proposals
Make the minimum wage a living wage
Partially decouple standards of living from market earnings: the social wage: Universal health care, good subsidized day care, public libraries & swimming pools, free universities, etc.
2. Partially decouple paid employment from capitalist markets: public sector jobs.
3. Partially decouple income from earnings
Asset development accounts
Unconditional Basic Income

13. McDONDALD’S FAST FOOD WORKERS
United States
Denmark
Unionized No
Yes
Hourly wage
Average: $8.60/hour
Minimum: $20/hour
Paid vacation
None
Five weeks
Paid maternity/paternity leave
Overtime pay for evening and Sundays
Cost of Big Mac
$4.80
$5.60

14. four kinds of structural proposals
Solutions to Poverty:
four kinds of structural proposals
Make the minimum wage a living wage
Partially decouple standards of living from market earnings: the social wage: Universal health care, good subsidized day care, public libraries & swimming pools, free universities, etc.
2. Partially decouple paid employment from capitalist markets: public sector jobs.
3. Partially decouple income from earnings
Asset development accounts
Unconditional Basic Income

15. four kinds of structural proposals
Solutions to Poverty:
four kinds of structural proposals
Make the minimum wage a living wage
Partially decouple standards of living from market earnings: the social wage: Universal health care, good subsidized day care, public libraries & swimming pools, free universities, etc.
3. Partially decouple paid employment from capitalist markets: public sector jobs.
3. Partially decouple income from earnings
Asset development accounts
Unconditional Basic Income
Don’t think of private sector jobs as the only “real jobs”. Think of the problem this way: what tasks that we would like done are best done by public employment, and then let’s create and fund those jobs in sufficient numbers. The public sector should not be viewed as the employer of last resort. If we really created jobs for all of the things we need done to provide good public services and public goods, the public sector would be vastly larger than it is now.

16. four kinds of structural proposals
Solutions to Poverty:
four kinds of structural proposals
Make the minimum wage a living wage
Partially decouple standards of living from market earnings: the social wage: Universal health care, good subsidized day care, public libraries & swimming pools, free universities, etc.
2. Partially decouple paid employment from capitalist markets: public sector jobs.
4. Partially decouple income from earnings
Asset development accounts
Unconditional Basic Income

17. UNCONDITIONAL BASIC INCOME (UBI)
Central principles:
1. Basic income: provides for a decent, no frills standard of living above the poverty line
2. Universal: given to all citizens
3. Unconditional: no restrictions, no work requirements

18. UNCONDITIONAL BASIC INCOME (UBI)
Central principles:
1. Basic income: provides for a decent, no frills standard of living above the poverty line
2. Universal: given to all citizens
3. Unconditional: no restrictions, no work requirements

19. UNCONDITIONAL BASIC INCOME (UBI)
Central principles:
1. Basic income: provides for a decent, no frills standard of living above the poverty line
2. Universal: given to all citizens
3. Unconditional: no restrictions, no work requirements

20. UNCONDITIONAL BASIC INCOME (UBI)
Central principles:
1. Basic income: provides for a decent, no frills standard of living above the poverty line
2. Universal: given to all citizens
3. Unconditional: no restrictions; no work requirements; no moral test.

21. Means-tested vs Universal Programs
Means-tested = a person only gets a benefit if they fall below some level of income. Example: food stamps.
Universal programs = everyone gets the benefit regardless of income. Examples: public education, Medicare.

22. Means-tested vs Universal Programs
Means-tested = a person only gets a benefit if they fall below some level of income. Example: food stamps.
Universal programs = everyone gets the benefit regardless of income. Examples: public education, Medicare.

23. Problems with means-tested programs
Stigma: recipients are labeled negatively
Weak basis of public support: universal programs build bridges across groups; means-tested programs create cleavages between groups
Universal programs become rights; means-tested programs viewed as charity
Result: universal programs usually do more to help the poor than means tested programs.

24. Problems with means-tested programs
Stigma: recipients are labeled negatively
Weak basis of public support: universal programs build bridges across groups; means-tested programs create cleavages between groups
Universal programs become rights; means-tested programs viewed as charity
Result: universal programs usually do more to help the poor than means tested programs.

25. Problems with means-tested programs
Stigma: recipients are labeled negatively
Weak basis of public support: universal programs build bridges across groups; means-tested programs create cleavages between groups
Universal programs become rights; means-tested programs viewed as charity
Result: universal programs usually do more to help the poor than means tested programs.

26. Problems with means-tested programs
Stigma: recipients are labeled negatively
Weak basis of public support: universal programs build bridges across groups; means-tested programs create cleavages between groups
Universal programs become rights; means-tested programs are viewed as charity
Result: universal programs usually do more to help the poor than means tested programs.

27. Problems with means-tested programs
Stigma: recipients are labeled negatively
Weak basis of public support: universal programs build bridges across groups; means-tested programs create cleavages between groups
Universal programs become rights; means-tested programs are viewed as charity
Result: universal programs usually do more to help the poor than means-tested programs.

28. Potential Consequences of BIG
Eliminates extreme poverty without stigma
Facilitates nonmarket activity: in the arts, caregiving, community activism
Gives everyone a measure of “real freedom” (positive freedom)
Strengthens negative freedom: the freedom to say “no”
Puts pressure on employers to innovate to eliminate unpleasant, boring work because it is costly

29. Potential Consequences of BIG
Eliminates extreme poverty without stigma
Facilitates nonmarket activity: in the arts, caregiving, community activism
Gives everyone a measure of “real freedom” (positive freedom)
Strengthens negative freedom: the freedom to say “no”
Puts pressure on employers to innovate to eliminate unpleasant, boring work because it is costly

30. Potential Consequences of BIG
Eliminates extreme poverty without stigma
Facilitates nonmarket activity: in the arts, caregiving, community activism
Gives everyone a measure of “real freedom” (positive freedom)
Strengthens negative freedom: the freedom to say “no”
Puts pressure on employers to innovate to eliminate unpleasant, boring work because it is costly

31. Potential Consequences of BIG
Eliminates extreme poverty without stigma
Facilitates nonmarket activity: in the arts, caregiving, community activism
Gives everyone a measure of “real freedom” (positive freedom)
Strengthens negative freedom: the freedom to say “no”
Puts pressure on employers to innovate to eliminate unpleasant, boring work because it is costly

32. Potential Consequences of BIG
Eliminates extreme poverty without stigma
Facilitates nonmarket activity: in the arts, caregiving, community activism
Gives everyone a measure of “real freedom” (positive freedom)
Strengthens negative freedom: the freedom to say “no”
Puts pressure on employers to innovate to eliminate unpleasant, boring work because it is costly

33. Two pragmatic arguments against BIG:
Will it Work?
Two pragmatic arguments against BIG:
1. Too many people will stop working for pay and thus not enough income will be generated to sustain the system.
2. Taxes to pay for BIG will be so high that there will be huge disincentives to invest and to work.

34. Two pragmatic arguments against BIG:
Will it Work?
Two pragmatic arguments against BIG:
1. Too many people will stop working for pay and thus not enough income will be generated to sustain the system.
2. Taxes to pay for BIG will be so high that there will be huge disincentives to invest and to work.

35. Two pragmatic arguments against BIG:
Will it Work?
Two pragmatic arguments against BIG:
1. Too many people will stop working for pay and thus not enough income will be generated to sustain the system.
2. Taxes to pay for BIG will be so high that there will be huge disincentives to invest and to work.