Economic Opportunity Commentaries
Posted May 15, 2012
Posted May 14, 2012
"The author’s diagnosis was that the U.S. economy just wasn’t flexible enough to cope with rapid technological change. The paper was especially critical of programs like unemployment insurance, which it argued actually hurt workers because they reduced the incentive to adjust. "
Posted May 7, 2012
Posted April 30, 2012
Posted April 23, 2012
Posted April 17, 2012
Posted April 9, 2012
Posted April 2, 2012
Posted March 26, 2012
"For Costis, education is a key factor in ending the cycle of poverty and homelessness, and that's why she's working to expand the House of Tiny Treasures program. Currently, 32 homeless children are enrolled, at a cost of $16,000 a year - paid for mostly with private donations. "
"Fortunately, there's an easy solution. Rather than curtailing public and private pensions, New York and other states could save millions of workers from impending poverty by creating public pensions for everyone.
While the recession bears some blame for the looming retirement crisis, experts agree that the primary cause is more fundamental: Most workers do not have retirement accounts at work. "
Posted March 5, 2012
"Yet I am also troubled by the more than $100 billion designated for “food and nutrition” in the president’s 2013 budget. The current dominance of in-kind transfer programs, such as food stamps, Medicaid and housing support, relative to cash- based welfare programs, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and Temporary Aid to Needy Families, is based on politics rather than economics. "
"In those six years, government payments as a component of income had risen to 26 percent of all household revenue in Tunica County. The average for all other counties in America at that time was 11.5 percent. The war on poverty was being waged full-scale in the Delta."
Posted February 21, 2012
"Finally, Cornell University’s Suzanne Mettler points out that many beneficiaries of government programs seem confused about their own place in the system. She tells us that 44 percent of Social Security recipients, 43 percent of those receiving unemployment benefits, and 40 percent of those on Medicare say that they 'have not used a government program.'"
"To put Americans back to work, it would invest $350 billion in constructing roads, rail lines and schools, and encourage manufacturing through tax incentives and research spending. It would maintain the Pell grant program for low-income college students and add new spending for teacher improvement and education reform."
"As part of the price for extending federal unemployment benefits, House Republicans want to add a provision that denies benefits to workers without a high school diploma or equivalent if they cannot prove they are enrolled in a credential-granting program."
Posted February 6, 2012
"A key in fixing holes is being able to see and find them. Significantly, it turns out that Romney appreciates that the safety net has holes. As Politico reported, after his CNN interview, the candidate explained to a plane-load of media that 'he is 'sure' there are holes in the safety net and that 'finding those places is one of the things that is the responsibility of government.'"
"As a result, thousands of pregnant women are pushed out of jobs that they are perfectly capable of performing -- either put on unpaid leave or simply fired -- when they request an accommodation to help maintain a healthy pregnancy. Many are single mothers or a family's primary breadwinner. They are disproportionately low-income women, often in physically demanding jobs with little flexibility."
"House Republicans have hit upon a noxious scheme to help pay for an extension of the payroll tax cut: a tax increase on millions of poor working families."
"First, some facts: The number of food stamp recipients has indeed risen sharply, but this rise began under President George W. Bush and is largely attributable to the recession. Food stamps are an anti-poverty measure, so it's no surprise that enrollment should rise when large numbers of people are out of work (the number of recipients dropped last month as the economy improved)."
"That check is the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a complicated name for tax relief for working families. Congress enacted a federal EITC in 1975, and Illinois enacted a state version in 2000. On Jan. 10 I signed a bill to put more money in the pockets of working families by doubling Illinois' EITC from 5 percent of the federal credit to 10 percent, saving low-income workers an extra $105 million a year."
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