A sociological look, with policy implications, at the problem of
welfare; by Ellwood (Public Policy/JFK School of Government,
Harvard U.). In this incisive work, Ellwood admits the failures of
the welfare state while looking to even more imaginative government
panaceas to cure poverty in America. The crux of the problem, he
insists, is that poverty is tied to our values and expectations.
There is not one type of poor, but three: families in which adults
are doing a good deal for themselves, those suffering temporary
setbacks, and those who require long-term support. Currently, all
three are treated basically the same by the welfare bureaucracy.
Ellwood argues that support policies should mirror the tripartite
breakdown, offering supplemental or transitional support, or "jobs
as a last resort." He believes that such policy changes as doubling
the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) - which would avoid
administrative or targeting complications - would help the poor to
lift themselves out of poverty in a way that doesn't destroy the
autonomy of the individual, the virtue of work, the primacy of the
family, or the desire for community: the four cornerstones of a
policy that he says would help to integrate, rather than isolate,
the poor. Ellwood proposes a few variations on his overall plan,
depending on whether he's tackling the problems of two-parent
families, one-parent families (where his emphasis is on better
child-support enforcement policies), or the "underclass," where
education is the key to replacing welfare. Ellwood's solutions
stumble at times - for instance, in failing to take into account
the economic complications of doubling the EITC - but, overall,
this is one of the most original recent approaches to draining the
welfare swamp. (Kirkus Reviews)
The subject of a "New York Times Magazine" cover story of December
8, 1996, David Ellwood is one of the country's leading experts on
poverty. In this book he describes who the poor are, explains why
they are poor, and suggests new policies for helping them. "Poor
Support" is a major reinterpretation of the various forms that
poverty takes in American families and what can be done to
alleviate the problem.
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