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Poverty: Government Funding of Social Programs
Human rights are often framed in two ways: freedom from government intervention, such as the right to free speech, and the right to access basic necessities, such as the right to adequate healthcare. The United States has traditionally emphasized negative rights, while other industrialized nations have placed greater emphasis on positive rights, including the right to conditions which support health and well-being. One proposal which has gained increasing traction in recent years is the right to a universal basic income (Hughes, 2018). Advocates arguing for such freedom from poverty suggest that it is a more beneficial way of addressing the problem of a permanent underclass than limited, conditional support such as food assistance. The idea that people will simply not work, advocates argue, is not true, given that most individuals do wish to contribute to society; a universal basic income would be a great equalizer and enable people to raise young children and study for more meaningful and necessary jobs (versus work at low-wage jobs that can be easily done by robots) (Hughes, 2018).
In the United States, work is often viewed as a universal benefit the individual, regardless of whether the work is fulfilling or needed. This is particularly true of the poor. A good example of this is while middle-class women who work are often viewed in ambiguous light as depriving their children of the benefits of maternal care, poorer women on state assistance who are unable to afford childcare and opt instead for state financial support are often demonized as lazy and irresponsible (Sidel, 2000). Such rhetoric often has an uncomfortably racist tone and is directed against single, young African-American women in particular. Sociological theory such as symbolic interactionalism can be useful in terms of understanding how the bodies of the poor, specifically of poor, black women, become symbolically coded in rhetoric used to demonize and denigrate the poor as undeserving of aid.
References
Hughes, C. (2018). Universal basic income: It’s a human right to have enough money to live on.
The Independent. Retrieved from: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/our- voices/battle-of-ideas/universal-basic-income-ubi-human-rights-money-poverty-help- living-costs-a8190326.html
Sidel, R. (2000). The enemy within: The demonization of poor women. The Journal of Sociology
and Social Welfare, 27(1), 73-83. Retrieved from: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2628&context=jssw
When food insecurity is therefore effectively addressed, minority communities can be uplifted to become part of the American way of life in a sustainable and viable way. The statistics demonstrate the demographic inequalities: According to the Food Research and Action Center (hereafter referred to as FRAC), as of 2005, 35.1 million people in the U.S. - over 10% of the population - were experiencing "food insecurity." Among African-Americans and
Beneficiaries of Three U.S. Social Programs In the last two years, there has been a major reform of Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health care programs like the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) under the general rubric of Obama Care. These programs are designed to cover the elderly over age 65 (in the future age 55), the poor who have no health insurance, and workers not yet covered by private
Schools are arranged in a prison-like fashion, making it difficult for children to be motivated or to learn. They are then robbed of opportunities to make something of their later lives. In this way, it becomes a cycle of poverty for parents, their children, and also for future generations. Government regulations that drive the cost of living beyond the grasp of those with lower income levels complicates the issue further.
He also asserts that government participation in the arts beyond its role as a consumer can pose significant hindrances to the artistic processes. He claims that politics tends to "seek stability, compromise, and consensus," and as a result avoids supporting art that may "offend majority opinion or go over its head" (38). The market, on the other hand, has "liberated artists…from the potential tyranny of mainstream market taste" (23). Is
Social Security Reform Can Social Security Be Reformed? Doing nothing to fix our Social Security system will cost us, as well as our children and grandchildren, an estimated $10.4 trillion, according to the Social Security Trustees. The longer we wait to take action, the more difficult and expensive the changes will be. -- White House Press Release, January 11, 2005 Today, Social Security is the largest of all government programs and has represented
Some of the funding is to come from a national prevention trust fund (Kaiser Fdn, 2010). However there are additional funding resources for the near-term that are readily assessable. Social Justice The National Secretary of Health has been called on to launch a national quality plan designed to address the issue of social injustice and improve the level of service to every state. Specific to this program are the rates for