Column Welfare: More money sucked up, less seeps down
By THOMAS C. FOX
Hard, flat metal benches without backs have been installed in the
downtown Kansas City, Mo., bus depot. The benches are designed to be as
uncomfortable as possible. Translate: Homeless, stay away.
More sympathetically, the local Plaza public library allows
virtually all visitors to sit in comfortable chairs, to read, browse -- and
even to nod off a bit.
The two scenes, opposite responses to human need, might serve as
an illustration for the themes being played out in our nations welfare
policies. Where once the country seemed intent on responding to human need, it
now seems determined to punish humans in need.
Since the War on Poverty of the 1960s, our nation has attempted to
respond to the needy by establishing a safety net. Now this has changed.
Welfare reform has moved us to a radically new approach that is
behavior-oriented rather than income-oriented. It is now aimed at getting
welfare recipients to work and not necessarily for a living wage. Simply to
work. Period. Regardless of circumstance.
With the signing by President Clinton of welfare reform
legislation Aug. 22, 1996, we embarked on a grand social experiment in human
behavior modification. Where this will take us or how it will affect the
neediest among us is an open question. But there is plenty of apprehension
among those who normally provide services for the poor.
One of the principal drawbacks to this approach, critics point out
-- aside from questions of the availability of jobs paying livable wages -- is
the effects of the experiment on children.
We were reminded of the size of the question recently when the
U.S. Census Bureau released its annual statistics. According to bureau figures,
children currently make up 40 percent of the nations poor although they
comprise 27 percent of its total population.
Further, 20.8 percent of our nations children under the age
of 18 live in poverty, according to the bureau. One in five children! This is
the highest poverty rate for any age group.
The poverty rate among U.S. children at the end of the 20th
century becomes an even more haunting issue as we witness the growing gap
between the rich and poor in America.
According to the most recent census information, the highest U.S.
income quintile accounted for 49.0 percent of total income in 1996 as compared
with 43.8 percent in 1967. At the other end, the lowest quintile accounted for
4 percent in 1967 and 3.7 percent in 1996.
These changes together mean that the middle 60 percent of the
income distribution (roughly those households with incomes between $15,000 and
$68,000 in 1996) has received a declining share over this period -- from 52.3
percent of income in 1967 down to 47.4 percent in 1996.
While the poor get poorer, middle-income Americans are also seeing
their share of the dream dwindle as wealth becomes more concentrated among the
very rich.
Another disturbing sign of social decline shows up in Census
Bureau health insurance coverage figures. The number of people without health
insurance coverage in 1996 was 41.7 million, 1.1 million more people than in
1995, or 15.6 percent of the population. Meanwhile, the proportion of poor
people without health insurance coverage was 30.8 percent, about double the
rate for all persons.
The number of uninsured children grew to 10.6 million (14.8
percent of all children) in 1996. The number of poor children without health
insurance was 3.4 million (23.3 percent of all poor children).
Catholic social teachings have long held that the great disparity
between rich and poor is morally unacceptable.
Pope Pius XI wrote: The vast differences between the few who
hold excessive wealth and the many who live in destitution constitute a grave
evil in modern society.
Pope John XXIII wrote in Pacem in Terris: For
experience has taught us that, unless ... authorities take suitable action with
regard to economic, political and cultural matters, inequalities between the
citizens tend to become more and more widespread, especially in the modern
world, and as a result human rights are rendered totally ineffective and the
fulfillment of duties is compromised.
Vatican II repeated this basic concern in Gaudium et Spes:
If the demands of justice and equity are to be satisfied, vigorous
efforts must be made ... to remove as quickly as possible the immense economic
inequalities which now exist. The document went on to say that it
is impossible to conceive true progress without recognizing the necessity ...
both of economic growth and participation. ... Participation constitutes a
right which is to be applied both in the economic and in the social and
political field.
More recently, Pope John Paul II expanded on this theme, saying,
It is not merely a matter of giving from ones surplus,
but of helping entire peoples which are presently excluded or marginalized to
enter into the sphere of economic and human development. For this to happen ...
it requires above all a change of lifestyles, of models of production and
consumption, and of the established structures of power which today govern
societies.
So how do we stay faithful? How do we respond? In each assessment,
Catholic social teachings challenge us to move beyond charity to social and
political analysis and the transformation of values and society.
Tom Fox is NCR's publisher.
National Catholic Reporter, October 24,
1997
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