5 Government Responses To Socio Economic Inequality 2018

GOVERNMENT RESPONSES TO SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY
REVISION NOTES
INTRO:
• There has been some progress in dealing with socio-economic inequality in the USA
due to Affirmative Action, government policies and changing attitudes.
• Black conservatives, while never denying that racism persists, think it is much less
severe than before and no longer the main obstacle to black advancement.
• However Julian Bond of the NAACP claims that racism is still “epidemic” in America.
PARAGRAPH 1: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
• TANF attempts to deal with income inequality and help needy families achieve self-
sufficiency.
• Cash grants are given to families who are poor and as such many families benefit.
• Child poverty has been reduced for single parent families as more are now in work.
• However child poverty is still too high for blacks and Hispanics compared to whites and
Asian Americans.
• In 1997 a 5 year time limit was imposed on this benefit and as such the number of
families receiving TANF dropped.
• Critics believe that it increased poverty and lowered income for single mothers. It
moved mothers and children from welfare to work, but many of them aren't making
enough to survive.
• TANF was successful during the Clinton Administration when the economy was
booming, but failed to support the poor when jobs were no longer available during the
downturn, particularly the Financial Crisis of 2007-10, and particularly after the lifetime
limits imposed by TANF may have been reached by many recipients
PARAGRAPH 2: Food stamps: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
• SNAP offers nutritional support to low-income individuals and families.
• Benefits are automatically loaded into the household’s account each month. It works
like a debit card.
• SNAP can be used to buy food but not alcohol, cigarettes, tobacco or household
goods.
• This benefits 42 million people in the USA. About 1 in 7 Americans buy food this way.
• It provides $30 worth of groceries for a single person per week.
• Malnutrition has decreased. The percentage of children ages 2 to 5 who were
underweight declined from 5.8% in 1971 to 3.4% in 2014. Child hospitalizations from
malnutrition-related diseases are virtually unheard of. The primary reason is Food
Stamps.
• Though it was conceived to fight hunger, something it has done, the program has also
lifted millions of people out of poverty, as the food benefit frees up household income
for other purposes. The program pushed 10 million people above the poverty line in
2012.
• But too much food has become a bigger nutritional problem in the U.S. than too little
food, potentially weakening support for SNAP.
• In 2015, USDA data revealed that food stamp recipients are more likely to be obese
40% than poor people who qualify for benefits but don’t receive them 32%.
PARAGRAPH 3: Affordable Health Care Act
• In 2012, 48 million Americans were uninsured, 15% of the American population.
• American citizens did not have health insurance because it was either unaffordable or
because employers were reducing the health coverage they provided to workers.
• To assist the 15% of the population who were not covered by their employers or by US
healthcare programs such as Medicaid, Barack Obama introduced healthcare reform
which extended health coverage to those who did not have it.
• By law, under Obamacare, all Americans must have health insurance. This is either
paid for by themselves, their employer or, if they can’t afford it, the state.
• The Act has had a positive effect on health because millions more Americans are now
insured. Since the introduction of the Affordable Care Act, over twenty million people
are estimated to have gained healthcare coverage showing the policy has had some
success in tackling health issues in the USA.
• The Act has also expanded Medicare, which is the public health programme for the
poor and offers subsidies to help low earners buy private health care.
PARAGRAPH 4: Race to the Top
• Is a $4.35 billion United States Department of Education competitive grant created to
spur and reward innovation and reforms in state and local district K-12 education.
• Money has been granted to 19 States and this has had a positive effect on 22 million
students in 42,000 schools, 45 percent of all K-12 students and 42 percent of all low-
income students nationwide.
• States are reporting some growth in English, language, arts and STEM (science,
technology, engineering, and maths) proficiency, improvements in graduation rates
and college acceptances and they are also creating new data systems to track their
successes.
• In Massachusetts the achievement gap between white and black students and white
and Hispanic students decreased by 2.5 percent for each group, evidence that the
state’s pledge to support and track low-performing schools is working for many
students.
• Critics of the Race to the Top fund often compare the policies of the program to
President Bush’s No Child Left Behind legislation, deriding them both for demoralising
teachers because they are compelled to “teach to the test”. Critics are convinced that
the Race to the Top fund will ultimately demonstrate little progress toward improving
education.
• However programs like the Massachusetts “Resources for Early Learning,” show that
the Race to the Top fund has encouraged creative new programs that incorporate
current research on what works best in education.
• Challenged by meeting the goals of the Race to the Top program, states have been
compelled to create materials that offer a true step toward education reform.
PARAGRAPH 5: Housing Vouchers
• The Section 8 programme helps low-income, elderly, and disabled tenants afford
decent and safe housing outside of the public housing system.
• Many of these renters had to live in public housing facilities often located in rougher
neighbourhoods, with very few other housing options.
• Using the Section 8 Housing Voucher Programme, tenants receive a housing voucher
they can use for any privately owned apartment, townhouse, or house that has
qualified for the Section 8 programme.
• The government pays up to 70% of the housing costs.
• This has improved the living conditions of a limited number of those on low incomes in
the USA.

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GOVERNMENT RESPONSES TO SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY

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