{"id":1747,"date":"2015-04-13T11:25:17","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T17:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=1747"},"modified":"2015-04-13T11:33:49","modified_gmt":"2015-04-13T17:33:49","slug":"when-did-the-idea-of-the-working-poor-become-a-bad-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/04\/when-did-the-idea-of-the-working-poor-become-a-bad-thing.html","title":{"rendered":"When did the idea of the “working poor” become a bad thing?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Here\u2019s the latest in the ongoing series of articles on the working poor, in this case, from the New York Times: \u00a0\u201cWorking, but Needing Public Assistance Anyway<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0I hardly need to tell you what the article is about: \u00a0it features single moms working at minimum wage jobs, who despite working full-time, are nonetheless recipients of federal aid, in the form of food stamps, Medicaid, child care subsidy or other government programs. \u00a0This is, really, nothing new \u2014 and ought to be a positive development, to the extent that this is a result of developing phase-outs for government benefits that enable the poor to support themselves to as great a degree as possible, while recognizing that, with their particular skill level and the state of the economy, they aren\u2019t able to be wholly self-sufficient. \u00a0This is certainly far preferable to families living on welfare and refusing to seek work because getting a job, any job, removes welfare benefits that are more valuable than the paycheck they get.<\/p>\n

The very concept of the working poor isn\u2019t new. \u00a0Perhaps in the past they weren\u2019t eligible for government benefits, but that doesn\u2019t speak to the lack of neediness of these families \u2014 just to the extent that the government wasn\u2019t as willing to improve their material well-being. \u00a0After all, food stamps and Medicaid (as well as Section 8 housing, low-income heating assistance, and other in-kind benefits for the working poor) weren\u2019t implemented because suddenly the financial situation of the working poor took a turn for the worse, but because our expectations grew \u2014 it is no longer acceptable for the poor to live in tenements or sharecropper shacks without running water or heat, for waifs to beg on streetcorners or work in factories, and, of course, as modern medicine came into being, we expect the poor to have access to medical care as well.<\/p>\n

So what is<\/strong> new? \u00a0Based on a mythical history in which, prior to \u2014 when? 1980? \u2014 workers were always able to support their families, even at minimum wage or unskilled jobs, even if a single mom is the only wage-earner and has child-care costs, to boot, progressives are now promoting the idea that employers have the moral, if not legal, responsibility, for all their employees, to provide wages high enough to meet all the needs (2015 definition) of their employees and their families \u2014 and, what\u2019s more, regardless of family size or number of wage earners.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the Times:<\/p>\n

Nearly three-quarters of the people helped by programs geared to the poor are members of a family headed by a worker, according to a new study by the Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California. As a result, taxpayers are providing not only support to the poor but also, in effect, a huge subsidy for employers of low-wage workers, from giants like McDonald\u2019s and Walmart to mom-and-pop businesses.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article then goes on to describe plans to \u201cpunish\u201d or shame employers for employing workers who collect Medicaid or other government benefits.<\/p>\n

Funny, one could turn it around, and say that minimum wage employers are helping out<\/em> the taxpayers, by providing jobs that lessen the amount of taxpayer subsidy required for unskilled workers with children. \u00a0But I think this idea that employers are \u201cfreeloaders\u201d for paying low wages speaks to the fundamental mindset of progressives: that employers, as a collective whole, are somehow a class apart from the rest of America, and collectively have a responsibility to provide sufficient jobs at sufficient pay rates for all potential workers, and any missing job or too-low pay is branded as a willful rejection of this responsibility.<\/p>\n

And, what\u2019s more, employers have no control over what benefits the government decides to provide for low-wage workers, nor can they restrict their hiring to childless workers, or control how many kids they have. \u00a0(I suppose penalties for welfare-using workers would be a strong incentive to hire retirees who are automatically eligible for Social Security and Medicare.) \u00a0And, heck, let\u2019s disregard McDonalds: \u00a0what about the mom and pop business, just barely staying in business, which could hire more low-wage workers or fewer high-wage workers. Are those workers who lose their jobs, or never get one offered in the first place, really better off with no wages and being fully depending on the government?<\/p>\n

Which is, once again, an illustration of the failure of progressives to understand the way the economy, employment, and the world around them works.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s the latest in the ongoing series of articles on the working poor, in this case, from the New York Times: \u00a0\u201cWorking, but Needing Public Assistance Anyway.\u201d \u00a0I hardly need to tell you what the article is about: \u00a0it features single moms working at minimum wage jobs, who despite working full-time, are nonetheless recipients of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen did the idea of the "working poor" become a bad thing?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here's the latest in the ongoing series of articles on the working poor, in this case, from the New York Times: \u00a0"Working, but Needing Public Assistance\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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