A Welfare Check
Reveal -- From the Center for Investigative Reporting
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Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues.
Twenty years ago, President Bill Clinton vowed to end welfare as we know it. And he did. Today, only a quarter of welfare dollars actually goes toward basic assistance housing, transportation or essential household items. On this hour of Reveal, we take a road trip with Marketplace's new podcast "The Uncertain Hour" and find out the surprising ways different states use this money, for things such as relationship counseling and college tuition for well-off kids
Heard, driving, en passant on NPR this PM. A couple factoids which will maybe even -surprise- (if that still works in your neurons) ... about the virus-Against-'Saving' {hardly-anything-at-all) now rampant amidst The Muricans.
1) HALF of all Muricans cannot come up with--Emergency, say?--USD $2K within thirty datys..
2) Of those earning a combined/household income of $150K==One hundred fifty thou/yr==20% cannot, either.
3) So we all know how Slick Willie stole Ronnie's welfare-queen slogan to finally convict A Lot of Muricans of the ONLY actual-Crime daily prosecutable in the dis-US: Being. Poor.
4) Discussion in U. of S. Africa re inducements To Save via throwing in a lottery-like "chance" ... and how well that Worked, psychologically AND fiscally.
5) Chance of getting any Actual Cash, when qualified for welfare, in 2016: well, on average: 23% might receive some. In advanced-parsimonious places like Oklahoma:
7% get some authentic stipend, however niggardly.
Overall a reasonably Ref'd overview of the mindsets which [still. does. not. explain. that.) in 2016: Theree exist virtually NO paths for th average person to put small sums into 'accounts' which yield anything beyond the Laughable "return"... GREEAAT for teaching kids How/Why/Where to fucking SAVE, at all.
