speech on 'how does democracy reduce poverty'
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Answer:
Four ways in which democracies have been able to reduce inequality and poverty are: Gives equal voting rights to all the citizens. Provides equal opportunity to all the sections of the society. Ensures social equality by protecting the rights of the citizens without discrimination.
As an economist who studies poverty and opportunity, and also as a former Democratic political appointee,1 my pragmatic view is that three key constraints should be taken into account if we are truly serious about making things happen: We need policies that are (1) based on the best available evidence on which factors limit economic success among the poor and which policies are most cost-effective in mitigating those factors; (2) consistent with the values and history of the Democratic party, while adapting to current social and economic circumstances; and (3) consistent with the broad values of Americans, so that they can generate political support and, ultimately, some bipartisan appeal.
The factors that limit success among the poor are pretty clear. The most important are their low education levels and weak skills; the low pay for unskilled work in the US, the correspondingly reduced incentive for many to remain in the job market, and the difficulty in finding or keeping jobs; and various “group-specific” barriers, such as growing up in a very poor family or neighborhood, having a criminal record, being a non-custodial parent, or having a disability.
The foregoing diagnosis leads directly to the prescription. What we need—very simply—are policies that will:
Raise education and skills among poor children, youth, and adults.
Make work pay” for the unskilled, and make more jobs available to them when needed.
Address the specific problems of such groups as ex-offenders, non-custodial parents, children in very poor families or neighborhoods, and people with disabilities.
The good news here is that decades of research suggest what works and what doesn’t when trying to accomplish the above goals. It goes without saying that our policy proposals should reflect that accumulated body of knowledge. As Democrats, we don’t expect the private sector or private charity to do all the necessary work, much as we might wish that to be the case. Instead, there is a serious policy role for government to play, a role that might require somewhat greater public resources than has historically been dedicated to the task.
Given this range of problems, an appropriate s
Making it easier for poor students to use their Pell grants in short-term or non-credit programs that clearly have labor market value, or for apprenticeships and other forms of work-based learning.
This is not a laundry list. It is a targeted set of programs that address the key problems and exploit what we know about what works and what doesn’t. There are, it should be stressed, notable omissions here: I am somewhat less interested, for example, in universal pre-K and am more interested in assuring access to high-quality pre-K programs for all low-income children;3 spending very scarce public resources to pay for pre-K for middle- and upper-income children makes little sense to me. Also, poor children can have access to good math and science instruction in a variety of ways, through traditional public schools, as well as in the best charter programs.
High-quality CTE, unlike old-fashioned vocational education, does not track students away from college and lock them into dead-end jobs. The best CTE programs—like Career Academies or apprenticeships—give students strong academic skills, plus more specific occupational training and work-based learning, providing them with both postsecondary education and career options after high school.4
As for higher education, we must help the public institutions that most poor students attend—especially community colleges—by providing more resources and clearer incentives to spend those resources cost-effectively. Basing additional public subsidies to these institutions on the academic and job market outcomes of their poor students is warranted.5 And making it easier for them to use their Pell grants in certificate programs that have labor market rewards would help as well.
I do not think that free community college should be an immediate top priority. Again, subsidizing college attendance for middle and upper-income students in a world of very scarce resources makes less sense than targeting these resources to the practices and services that will best serve low-income students successfully and prepare them for the future.
Making Work Pay and Jobs More Available
When people with low skills work, their pay in the United States is usually very low. This not only means they struggle to support their families, but it also discourages many workers who expected to have higher wages and benefits, which then leads some to drop out of the workforce. Indeed, falling labor force Participation