http://www.freep.com/article/20110825/NEWS06/108250536/Michigan-Legislature-caps-health-insurance-spending-puts-new-time-limits-welfare
$60 million saved, but how much will this cost the city of Detroit in the long run? Wayne County (Detroit) will be most effected by welfare cap and is least equipped to handle the change. Michigan needs to stop neglecting the urban poor and begin investing in urban centers to drive economic growth.
The cap on welfare and limitations on public employee health insurance will be felt severely in already struggling urban areas such as Detroit and Flint, where the public sector is overwhelmingly the largest source of employment. Rural and suburban areas that are not as reliant on the public sector for employment and do not have the same concentrated poverty affected communities relying on welfare will not suffer to the same degree as the urban centers, causing Detroit to continue falling behind the rest of the state & country.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Soaring Poverty Casts Spotlight on ‘Lost Decade’ -NY Times Article
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/14census.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp
The figures stated in this article don't surprise me, but they are truly alarming indicators of the need for urgent reform. It is possible as the article suggests that these numbers will press political action on the issue of poverty allowing policy measures such as the jobs act to pass. However, it is likely that marginalized individuals and those who fell out of the margin, deeper into poverty, will feel further disenfranchised from the political/governing system and doubt any capability of government intervention on poverty. This is unfortunate because as the data in this article shows, more people are in poverty now than in the past 52 years, and that conditions of the middle class are showing signs of distress not seen since 1996. This information indicates that the decline of the middle class, the stagnated wage levels and rising cases of poverty are results of years of failed social policies and misdirected spending (including poorly designed tax structures) and not a simple result of the stimulus spending or other recent policy measures.
In the current political climate, petty politics are preventing the proper governance needed for effective economic investment to alleviate poverty.
The figures stated in this article don't surprise me, but they are truly alarming indicators of the need for urgent reform. It is possible as the article suggests that these numbers will press political action on the issue of poverty allowing policy measures such as the jobs act to pass. However, it is likely that marginalized individuals and those who fell out of the margin, deeper into poverty, will feel further disenfranchised from the political/governing system and doubt any capability of government intervention on poverty. This is unfortunate because as the data in this article shows, more people are in poverty now than in the past 52 years, and that conditions of the middle class are showing signs of distress not seen since 1996. This information indicates that the decline of the middle class, the stagnated wage levels and rising cases of poverty are results of years of failed social policies and misdirected spending (including poorly designed tax structures) and not a simple result of the stimulus spending or other recent policy measures.
In the current political climate, petty politics are preventing the proper governance needed for effective economic investment to alleviate poverty.
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