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How Many Poor Children Is Too Many?
DATE: 07/06/2007 / MOOD: angry
After nearly a decade of unprecedented economic growth and well into
the latest overhaul of the nation's welfare system, one in six American
children
- over 12 million youngsters - lived in poverty, according to the
latest
available figures from the Census Bureau.
That's the good news, because in 1993, more than one in five children were
poor. The bad news is that the nation today is roughly where it was in 1979.
And compared to the rest of the industrialized world, this country remains
at the bottom of the heap.
Today, as the good times begin to wane and policy makers begin to
evaluate what welfare reform has wrought, the question emerges: Is this
the best
the United States can do? Must so many children in the nation grow up
poor?
Some experts are pessimistic, at least in the short run. "Given the
relationship between the labor market and government, which is very
hands off; given
the relationship between the family and the government, which is very
hands
off; given our ideas about redistribution and individuality, as long as
we hold tenaciously to those ideas, my guess is we're going to have
quite
high child poverty rates, " said Susan E. Mayer,
a professor of public policy at the University of Chicago and deputy director
of the Joint Center for Poverty Research.
Others are more hopeful. "It's absolutely not the best we can do,"
said Lawrence Aber, a professor of public health at Columbia University
and director
of the National Center for Children in Poverty [and a JCPR affiliate].
"We
have benefited from a robust economy. But there are other things that
affect
child poverty. There are a whole bunch of strategies within our
economic
means. It's a matter of developing the political will."
The question of political will looms large these days as Congress
prepares to reauthorize its 1996 overhaul of the welfare system.
Already, legislation
has been proposed to explicitly link child poverty to welfare reform.
Bills
introduced by two Democrats - in the Senate by Charles Schumer of New
York,
in the House of Representatives by Pete Stark of California - would
make
the reduction of child poverty a stated goal of federal welfare policy,
and they would offer financial rewards to states that reduce their
number
of poor children. Currently, states can reap bonuses for showing that
welfare
recipients are working and for reducing out-of-wedlock births.
Scholars of the subject point to several factors to explain the rise
and fall of child poverty: the share of children growing up in single
parent
households, the share of low- paying jobs in the economy and the share
of
a nation's wealth spent on social programs. Which ones they emphasize
generally
depends on their political persuasion.
But there is general agreement that conditions for poor children
have improved since 1993, when childhood poverty was at its highest in
a decade. The booming
economy has created jobs, and welfare reform has pushed poor, single
mothers
to fill them, often for the first time. And while many of the new jobs
are
at the low end of the pay scale, a tax break for the working poor,
known
as the Earned Income Tax Credit, has enabled them to keep more of what
they
make.
But if job growth and welfare reform have slashed public assistance
caseloads, they have not relieved child poverty to the same degree.
Nationally, welfare
rolls dropped by nearly 50 percent between 1993 and 1998, but child
poverty
rates dropped just 17 percent, according to an analysis by Dr. Aber's
group.
In New York, welfare caseloads shrank by 30 percent, but child poverty
fell
a mere 7 percent. In Wisconsin, home of the Tommy G. Thompson, the
secretary
of health and human services, welfare rolls dropped by 80 percent,
compared
with a 28 percent fall in child poverty. And bear in mind that the
official
poverty line is just $17,000 for a family of four.
"The good news is yes, economic expansion can improve the economic
well-being of children, but there are limits to that," said [JCPR
affiliate] Mark Courtney,
a professor of social services at the University of Chicago and
[Director]
at the Chapin Hall Center for Children, a research group. "It begs the
question:
What is society willing to do to make up the difference?"
That question will dog Congress as it revisits the welfare program.
The drive for welfare reform, after all, has always been about spending
priorities,
as well as poverty, whether of adults or children.
Liberals like Mr. Courtney favor government spending on things like
child care, health care and education, and they plan to press for more
money for
such programs when Congress debates the reauthorization of the welfare
block
grants to states. They are also likely to urge the government to expand
child support measures: proposals have been floated not just to
strengthen
child support enforcement but to offer government funds that will match
a father's child support payments to single mothers.
Immigration is likely to be another area of partisan warfare, said [JCPR affiliate] Rebecca M. Blank, an economist
and dean of public policy at the University of Michigan, since children
in immigrant families are far more likely to be poor. And immigrant advocates
have already begun a push to restore the cuts that Congress made in food
stamps and Medicaid for immigrants who came to this country after 1996.
Conservatives, meanwhile, are expected to press for more money for
policies that emphasize work and reduce the number of single parent
families, whose
children are far more likely to be poor. With this in mind, the 1996
welfare
law offered states financial incentives to reduce out-of-wedlock
births.
So far, the results are uncertain.
"The best thing we can do is promote two- parent families," said Ron Haskins, a former Republican aide who helped draft the 1996 law and
who is now with the Brookings Institution, a research group in Washington.
"For single mothers, we can do a lot more. We can help them stay in the
labor force. We can help them advance in the labor force. There's political
support to beef up the work support system."
Economists and public policy scholars applaud the bipartisan support
for these so-called work supports - tax credits and child care
subsidies for
wages at the low end of the economy. But precisely because welfare
reform
has brought so many poor mothers into the work force, any discussion of
child poverty, they insist, must now shift to the less popular matter
of
wages. "You make work pay, you lift people out of poverty," said
William
Julius Wilson, the Harvard economist.
"The minimum wage is becoming increasingly important for child
poverty," said Professor Blank, "because so many low-wage women work at
or near the
minimum wage."
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
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"7 Top Internet Marketing Techniques that Always Work"
DATE: 05/19/2007 / MOOD: in love
Although trends in internet marketing come and go, there's always certain internet marketing techniques that will work. What's
key is applying these techniques consistently to your business. You don't have to be a writing genius, or even an expert internet marketer to make these techniques work. Most of the time,
if you're willing to read and follow instructions, you can learn how to do these techniques. You can use these techniques regardless of what you are marketing whether it's your own products or sevices, MLM, or affiliate
programs. If you're a writer, even better because the internet is an ideal place for writers. 1. Search engine optimization
The real secret to search engine optimization is finding the right
keywords. Although two word keywords are popular, they may or may not
help searchers find what they are looking for. Use less competitive
three to four word keyword phrases to optimize. Use a search engine
optimization suite like Web CEO, which is free, to help you optimize
your site. It offers a quick start guide that will help you get started
in less than an hour. Since most website owners don't bother optimizing
their sites, you'll easily get higher rankings simply by optimizing
your site. 2. Article Writing Writing articles brands you as an expert, helps you build valuable
backlinks, and uses pull marketing instead of push marketing. Pull
marketing is more effective because you are drawing visitors to you.
Visitors are looking for you because you offer something of value up
front. Tease the reader with an offer of additional information. Use a
list so you can recycle your traffic. Since the internet is largely a
content driven medium, you can easily find success by writing articles.
However, if the thought of writing articles makes you crazy, try
writing lists, or a How To. A How To is easy because you show others
how to do something. Just write down the steps. 3. Press Release Writing
Write an effective press release, and you can get traffic fast. Press
releases are far more effective than ads because they are seen as news.
Although print readers expect advertising mixed in with content, online
readers tend to avoid it if possible. Just make sure that what you're
writing about is newsworthy. Include the how, what, when, where, and
why, just like a news story. Stress information about your topic
instead of your product. Don't forget to include your product though.
Press releases need to be focused. 4.Forum Posting
If the thought of writing articles or press releases still makes you
nervous, then try posting on forums first. You can ask, as well as
answer questions and build trust and credibility with other forum
members. Just remember not to advertise your products or services.
Reserve that for your signature file and make sure you follow forum
guidelines. This can be a time consuming process, so I don't recommend
making this your primary method of promoting your business. 5.Joint Ventures Joint ventures work best if you own your own product. You will want to
create an irresistable offer for your joint venture partners, and you
want to make it easy for your joint venture partners to become
involved. When choosing joint venture partners, you'll want to do some
research. Contact each website owner personally with your offer. Stress
the benefits of doing business with you. Make your offer. Show the site
owner the benefits of doing a joint venture with you and don't forget
to give your partner a copy of your product, as well as special
commission rate. Although setting up your first joint venture can be
time consuming, once you have a network of partners in place, it can
become very lucrative without a lot of work. Also, joint ventures are
the fastest way to earn money from your new venture. 6.Affiliate Programs To some extent, starting your own affiliate program goes hand in hand
with joint ventures. If you plan to create joint ventures, you will
save yourself a lot of time and expense by setting up your affiliate
program first. You can easily do this by using and affiliate program
script, readily available for free in script directories. The secret to
a successful affiliate program is to create plenty of resources for
your affiliates, as well as offer them generous commissions and support. 7.Free Reports
A free report is longer than an article but shorter than a book or ebook. You can write a short, usually five to 10 page report
in a couple of hours. The secret to a good short report is the same as for articles. Give your readers a taste, and then refer them to the product
or service you are marketing. Although you can find plenty of free ebook compiliers on the internet,
it's better if you offer your report in PDF so that anyone can download
it and read it. Tools like Open Office will allow you to convert your
report to PDF, and you can even make the links clickable. Once you've written your report, you can use one of the methods above
to advertise it, or you can submit it to ebook directories. If all of
these internet marketing techniques seem too complicated, then your
best bet is to try linking. Linking works best if you own your own
website because many website owners will want a reciprocal link. You
can also post comments to blogs, as well as submit to directories. Just
remember to avoid me too comments. Make your comments intriguing so
that others will want to visit your site. There are plenty of other ways to market your business effectively. However, it can easily become expensive. These techniques
allow you to slash your marketing budget to zero, and they're very effective. Thank you for reading my Blog! Lisa Simpkins
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Networking with a IQ
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