Amid the ravages of the first two years of the pandemic in the U.S., a small light became visible: The government showed that it could choose to move millions of children and their families out of poverty.
It is no longer choosing to do so, instead allowing most COVID-related aid packages to expire. And as researchers feared, poverty in America is again soaring — reaching pre-pandemic heights and in some cases going higher.
“It confirmed that a lot of this is really just a choice,” said Kyle Moore, an economist who studies inequality for the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. “We had programs in place that demonstrably cut poverty, particularly child poverty. We allowed those programs to expire. And poverty went back up — a lot.”
Across the country, the expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) — along with multiple rounds of stimulus payments, enhanced unemployment insurance and food assistance — drove […]
I totally agree with you Stephan. I would add that it is a shame that the Social Security I recieve is the same as the Federal Minimum Poverty wage. Why can we not tax the Billionares more so those of us on Social Security al least get a wage that we can pay our bills on? These Billionares would not even notice the difference, and they would still be rich?
P.S.: I woult be able to survive without having many, many gardens which produce over 50% of the organic food I need to get through the year, which I keep in my large freezer and my cold-cellar. I have also invented a huge squash which makes food which grows as
large as 10 pounds each. I also share this large type of squash with my friends and poor people I know who are old like me and need the extra food.