We learned a lot from the pandemic.
For example, we were reminded that for all our pretensions to global dominion and regular displays of blatant disregard for the biome which so generously harbors our increasingly ungrateful species, Mother Nature can wipe us out in the space of a few months if she wants to. As I never tire of reminding readers, if COVID had been a hemorrhagic fever, 2020 would’ve been the end of the world as we know it. And scarcely anybody would’ve “felt fine,” as the song goes.
Another thing we learned in 2020 is that if we want to, we can drive down poverty dramatically pretty much overnight. Of course, critics would charge that the effort came at a cost: 9% inflation. That assertion is disingenuous, inflammatory, misleading and a lot of other bad things besides, but importantly, it’s not entirely wrong.
What is entirely wrong (or if it’s not “wrong,” then it’s at least entirely unfortunate as a comment on our capacity for problem-solving) is the idea that there should be childhood poverty in the richest country in the history of the world.
With that brief preamble, I felt compelled to highlight updated Census Bureau data released on Tuesday. According to the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which accounts for government assistance and geography, the child poverty rate more than doubled in 2022 as pandemic transfer payments lapsed, key benefit programs including the expanded child tax credit were allowed to expire and stimulus faded. The rising cost of living made things worse.
The bah humbugs among you will immediately note that the rate is still lower than it was prior to the pandemic. And the absurdity of what you’re suggesting will be totally lost on you. (“Well there are still fewer hungry kids than there were before the plague, so who’s to complain?!” Narrator: The hungry kids, if you can hear them over their growling stomachs.)
Melissa Boteach, Vice President of Income Security at the National Women’s Law Center, wasn’t amused. “We know what works. The expansion of the child tax credit in 2021 led to the most significant decrease in poverty on record,” she remarked on Tuesday afternoon in the US. “Rather than double down on that proven success, lawmakers allowed the program to expire, taking away income that families were relying on for groceries, rent, child care and more.”
As a reminder, the US scores horribly on child poverty among advanced economies.
As the figure above shows, America is basically an emerging market in that regard, astounding given the dollar’s reserve currency status and the privileges and fiscal leeway that go along with it.
Boteach is right, obviously, but it doesn’t matter. The child tax credit enjoys bipartisan support, but the data from 2021 isn’t really allowed to speak. It’s drowned out by accusations of wasteful spending, and the shrill protestations of budget hawks and perverse incentives crusaders on the tacit notion that the historic decline in poverty was too good to be true.
In other words: Nobody wants child poverty, just like nobody wants unemployment, but we seem wedded to the idea that if we have too little poverty (or too many jobs), something bad’s bound to happen. Because there’s no free lunch — figuratively or, in this context, literally.
Michael Strain, of the American Enterprise Institute, captured the gist of the opposition. “Yes, this alleviated child poverty, but it didn’t really do a whole lot to encourage self-sufficiency,” he said.
Back in the good old days, you’d just send the children down into the coal mine where they could earn a decent living and learn something about paying your own way in the world.
Boteach offered the unvarnished truth: “This data once again highlights that poverty in our country isn’t a personal failing, but rather a policy choice.”
If you’re curious as to what Tuesday’s data would’ve looked like if the one-year expansion to the federal child tax credit in the American Rescue Plan had been extended, the Center on Poverty & Social Policy at Columbia did the math.
“Had the 2021 expanded-Child Tax Credit still been in effect in 2022, the child poverty rate would’ve been 8.1%, preserving much of the historic decline in child poverty of 2021,” a policy brief said. “On its own, an expanded Child Tax Credit could’ve kept over five million children from poverty and cut the 2022 SPM child poverty rate by 47%.”
We’re selfish, as humans that is. In theory the U.S. is the wealthiest nation, at least in terms of GDP. In practice we are very selfish when it comes to ‘the greater good’. Very few are ready to make any monetary sacrifice for universal betterment of their town, county, state or hungry children they don’t know. Tax, which is about the greater good, is almost universally despised.
Our founding pioneer spirit that helped us until the mid 20th century during the period when there was always more space ‘out west’ where we could be left alone to do our own thing, holds us back now that we’ve run out of expansion space and have to live in ever denser population centers where being mindful of the greater good is essential to peace and tranquility. Maybe it has something to do with social animals that need a pecking order – meaning I’d like to move up the chain but I certainly don’t want any of those below to get a leg up over me.
This state of affairs certainly is aggravated by the scarcity complex that seems to be built in to our psyches. How else do you explain that we humans are forever trying to tear apart our little spaceship earth without which none of us can survive, not even those building their own getaway vehicles. If we had an average lifespan of 200 years would we be at least a little less inclined to trash things. Doubt it. It would be more fitting if those enthusiasts who chant USA USA at international sporting events shouted Me Me Me instead. Sorry for the rant, but can’t help it when H puts reality clearly in focus and it’s not very flattering.
3DDD – Great post after yet another memorable piece from our Dear Leader.
Curious – was the “me me me” reference from an old black & white movie or TV show that showed around 1960? I have a semi-vivid memory of the closing scenes of some post-apocalypse drama where a harried hero was on stage facing a crowd chanting “me me me” in unison. He was drowned out as he begged them “No, no please! We have to work together.” I’ve often wondered just what drama seared that memory into my consciousness. (Of course, I sided with the crowd which is why I fit right in down on Wall Street!) Can anyone ID that cinematic triumph?
The memory was right up there with a Mad Magazine cover informing us that 1961 would be the last year for generations where you could turn over the date and it would remain the same. That greatly upset me for some reason. Perhaps it was the first occasion that I grappled with the concept of mortality?
Immediate relief, child tax credit; long term strategy, edu$ation relief.
Salute for the article.
It’s complete f*cking bullshit that we allow this. I’m one of minority on this site in that I’m strongly right-leaning. I would happily pay for increased food stamps and the child tax credit. I’m proud that my urban school district provides a breakfast and a lunch for any student that wants it. Regardless of income. Food stamps, the child tax credit, and school lunches are minuscule in the big scheme. Yet this assistance is sometimes enough to keep a family afloat. I have a somewhat radical view that food stamps should be available to every American regardless of wealth. The people who don’t need it would mostly self-select out.
It’s so hard to get ahead in today’s America. It can still be done. But the deck is stacked against folks. Add to it the outrageous number of kids in single-family homes, the cost of basic goods in cities, and the lack of even simple financial guidance and it becomes almost impossible without aid.
And yes, before anyone asks, I’ve communicated my position with my local Republican House member. I live in Illinois, so my Senators do not need encouragement to spend money.
+1
A really great article on a topic that is such an obvious opportunity. Can’t find it now, but I recall a study on the impact of the UK’s Blair years to eradicate child poverty and a cold economic analysis of the results. If I recall correctly it’s was in the region of 13% CAGR.
This is not even considering the social benefits which were reduced obesity, less children admitted to hospital for accidents, more time spent with parents.
As they say in the academic echelons ‘ it’s a ######ing no brainer ”
Only issue seems to be , that it takes longer to manifest than the political cycle
I know it is only a drop in the bucket but this is why I donate a portion of every paycheck to UNICEF. I can’t change government policy but at least I feel like I am doing something to help.
should have stayed as a theocracy protected fetus in the womb. their choice to enter the country, now get to work. u$a u$a
My grandfather was one of 12 children. He quit school at 11 (in 1900) and took a job as a hod carrier. For those who don’t know, a hod is a “v” shaped platform on top of a stick. It is filled with a bunch of bricks so someone can get on a ladder with this thing to take the bricks up to be laid. Try holding a 80-100 pounds straight up in the air with one arm while climbing a ladder. That was child labor. My dad was thirteen when his after school job was as a bobbin carrier at Lady Pepperell. That involves picking up huge chunks of wood wound with thousands of yards of thread for use in power weaving looms. He would carry three to four at a time out to the loom, rinse and repeat for hours. At sixteen, he became a milk man at Hood Dairies. We outlawed this crap most places, found other ways to do it but guess what, it’s baaack. The KC suburb next to me is Independence, MO, home of Harry S Truman. This is a sizeable town with a six-figure population, the historic Jackson County courthouse, and so much poverty that 90% of the city’s kids qualify for full breakfast and lunch at school. Trouble is that doesn’t cover weekends or summer and the less broad-minded among us recently cut food stamps for millions of families. It’s disgusting.
That quote from Michael Strain belongs in The Onion.
Another example of post-pandemic “normalization” that we did not need. But while curing/relieving child poverty is something that many believed was possible, it took the pandemic to demonstrate it. Maybe that’s a start. I feel like the persistent inequality in this country resides in a similar space. Most seem to agree something needs to be done about it, but until something is actually done, we shrug and say the problem seems too embedded or intractable. Two perfect bookends for our economy. Can’t help the most in need, and can’t mess with the most in greed.
Family values? Maybe not….So, we have a big demographic problem- Declining birth rates- 2 possible tactics:more immigration, particularly targeted to skilled people, and support for parents who choose to have children…A signif icant number of voters hate both these things. Note to Republicans- look haow far Israel swung to the right, primarily because of educated immigrants….