Tag Archives: Poverty

Commentary

Should Christians pray for the economy?

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This article from John Piper’s Desiring God blog was sent to me by Mary.

Excerpt:

A healthy economy serves people in multiple ways. Here are two.

First, it is better for people to be able to work for their living than to have to depend upon others to provide for their needs. For example, Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to work with their hands so that they “will not be dependent upon anyone” (1 Thessalonians 4:12; see also 2 Thessalonians 3:6-12).

In addition to this, as Wayne Grudem has pointed out in his book Business to the Glory of God , economic productivity is the only long-term solution to global poverty. We have seen this manifestly demonstrated over the last several hundred years as economic freedom has, through God’s grace, lifted millions out of poverty, and it remains true for the future.

Second, a healthy economy more effectively allows for the wide-scale implementation of proactive initiatives for the good of others. This is where I want to spend my time—focusing on things that do good for people on a large scale, both physically and spiritually. The multi-faceted creative initiatives that are enabled by a healthy economy include both the initiatives of for-profit businesses as well as the social and spiritual good that non-profit organizations are able to do.

It is absolutely true that God does good through times of hardship and not just health. This is not just true, but glorious. Yet this does not give us reason as Christians to be nonchalant about whether hardship comes. We are to guide our actions and desires by God’s will of command, which is to seek our nation’s (and the world’s) welfare, just as God commanded Jeremiah: “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare (Jeremiah 29:7).

Economics is something that all Christians should care about. Read the Bible first, then think about how the Bible can be applied to economics. What is your plan to serve God, and how does the state of the economy help or hurt your plan? What can you do to make the economy stronger? How can you convince others to share that goal?

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News

Is the government really interested in undermining marriage?

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Check out this calculator hosted by the Department of Health and Human Services. (H/T ECM)

Here are some of the things the calculator considers:

  • how many hours each person works
  • how much child support is being paid by the father
  • what is the cost of day care
  • eligibility for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
  • eligibility for Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program
  • eligibility for food stamps
  • eligibility for Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children
  • eligibility for public and subsidized housing
  • eligibility for Subsidized Child Care

It helps people who are considering marriage see all the benefits they would lose by marrying.

Sometimes, it is not worth it to work in a real job (dealing drugs doesn’t count because you don’t declare that), and sometimes it is not worth it to get married. And the government likes it when people don’t get married, because fatherless children are more used to being dependent on the state, and they are more malleable in the public schools.

The calculator is linked by the United Way, a radically leftist organization that provides funding for all kinds of anti-Christian, anti-marriage, anti-family, anti-child social programs – including funding abortions. They also cut funding to the Boy Scouts of America.

Commentary

What is the conservative plan for taking care of the poor?

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Here’s is the Heritage Foundation explaining what conservatives would do to solve the problem of poverty.

Excerpt:

Since 1964, the U.S. has spent $15.9 trillion on means-tested welfare programs. After adjusting for inflation, welfare spending is 13 times higher today than it was in 1965. Welfare spending has grown more rapidly than Social Security, Medicare, education, and defense. And what do we have to show for these efforts? According to the Census Bureau, a record high 3.7 million Americans fell into poverty in 2009. The out-of-wedlock birthrate is now 40% and the African American out-of-wedlock birthrate is 72%. When the War on Poverty began the out-of-wedlock birthrate was just 7%.

The collapse of marriage is the root cause of child poverty in the U.S. today. It is far past time to reboot our poverty programs to promote work and encourage marriage in order to control costs and promote greater self-reliance. Among Rector’s recommendations:

  • Slowing the growth of the welfare state: Congress needs to establish reasonable fiscal constraints within the welfare system. Once the current recession ends, aggregate welfare spending should be rolled back to pre-recession levels. After this rollback has been completed, the growth of welfare spending should be capped at the rate of inflation.
  • Promoting personal responsibility and work: Able-bodied welfare recipients should be required to work or to prepare for work as a condition of receiving aid. Food stamps and housing assistance, two of the largest programs for the needy, should be aligned with the TANF program to require able-bodied adults to work or to prepare for work for a minimum of 30 hours per week.
  • Ending the welfare marriage penalty and encouraging marriage in low-income communities: Current means-tested welfare programs penalize low-income recipients who get married; these anti-marriage penalties should be reduced or eliminated.

During the administration of President Bill Clinton, conservatives successfully reformed one welfare program in the 1990s: replacing the old Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with the new Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). But President Barack Obama’s failed economic stimulus gutted those reforms. And his budget proposal would spend $10.3 trillion on means-tested welfare over the next decade. Before the current rise in poverty, that was enough to give $250,000 to each person currently living in poverty in the U.S., or $1 million for a poor family of four. Our nation can’t afford another 10 years of failed War on Poverty thinking.

You can read more about this issue in this Townhall.com column by Walter Williams, which explains everything you need to do to avoid being poor, and to avoid making your kids poor.

Excerpt:

Avoiding long-term poverty is not rocket science. First, graduate from high school. Second, get married before you have children, and stay married. Third, work at any kind of job, even one that starts out paying the minimum wage. And, finally, avoid engaging in criminal behavior. If you graduate from high school today with a B or C average, in most places in our country there’s a low-cost or financially assisted post-high-school education program available to increase your skills.

Most jobs start with wages higher than the minimum wage, which is currently $5.15. A man and his wife, even earning the minimum wage, would earn $21,000 annually. According to the Bureau of Census, in 2003, the poverty threshold for one person was $9,393, for a two-person household it was $12,015, and for a family of four it was $18,810. Taking a minimum-wage job is no great shakes, but it produces an income higher than the Bureau of Census’ poverty threshold. Plus, having a job in the first place increases one’s prospects for a better job.

The Children’s Defense Fund and civil rights organizations frequently whine about the number of black children living in poverty. In 1999, the Bureau of the Census reported that 33.1 percent of black children lived in poverty compared with 13.5 percent of white children. It turns out that race per se has little to do with the difference. Instead, it’s welfare and single parenthood. When black children are compared to white children living in identical circumstances, mainly in a two-parent household, both children will have the same probability of being poor.

Here’s more Walter Williams: (2 minutes)

And some Thomas Sowell: (4.5 minutes)

Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell are my two favorite economists.