Mayor Bloomberg's New Plan To Fight Poverty

The NY Sun reports on Mayor Mike Bloomberg's new plan to fight poverty: cash rewards.

Poor New Yorkers could get cash rewards if they make choices that will help them move out of poverty, such as staying in school or taking higher education courses, as part of the sweeping array of programs to reduce poverty Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday...

The cash payments plan, which was not among the commission's recommendations, would cost about $24 million a year and would be funded through private philanthropy. The mayor also said the city would seek approval to provide tax refunds of up to $1,000 for low-income families that need day care for children under age 3, at a cost of $42 million.


The article has critics giving pros and cons to the plan. Although the critics of the plan give good reasons why it's not the best idea, I'm of a mixed opinion.

I'm not a fan of entitlements at all, but at least this entitlement is more along the lines of the old New Deal type where you were expected to fulfill your part of the bargain before you received the entitlement. For example with the GI Bill you had to serve militarily first and then you got money. With social security you had to work first and then you received Social Security. So even though it's not my optimum idea, it's less of a bad idea than the LBJ style of entitlement made popular by his "War on Poverty" where the government paid you first and hoped on good faith that you would take the steps to eventually improve your life.

So it's kind of a baby step. Cutting entitlements altogether overnight would never fly in New York, but something like this at least uses private funds and requires some type of performance up front from the intended beneficiaries. It's at least a step in the right direction.


-Thanks to a hip hop Republican and blog pal Johnny for this post

http://johnnytriangles.blogspot.com/