<story><title>New Findings from War on Poverty: Just Give Cash</title><url>http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-10-09/new-findings-from-war-on-poverty-just-give-cash</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>scholia</author><text>Did anybody actually read the story?&lt;p&gt;The key observation is that a study published in Nature &lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;found a correlation between child brain structure and family income. Simply put, family income is correlated with children’s brain surface area, especially among poor children. More money, bigger-brained kids.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is supported by the Cherokee study: when the families became a bit better off ($4,000 a year) the kids did better when they grew up.&lt;p&gt;So it&amp;#x27;s missing the point to argue about how grown-ups might (or might not) &amp;quot;waste&amp;quot; money and whether cash is better than other forms of welfare. The point is that bringing up children in poverty creates a worse outcome for society as a whole.&lt;p&gt;The fact is that $4,000 a year for 20 years is a very small amount compared with the cost of US police, courts, and prisons. If a poor kid grows up, gets a job and pays taxes, that&amp;#x27;s a massive win &lt;i&gt;for society&lt;/i&gt; compared with the same kid growing up in the sort of deprivation that leads to a life of crime and jail.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jdonaldson</author><text>When I saw that the argument was based on the outcomes at an Indian reservation I became very, very skeptical of the findings.  Reservations are not an ideal arrangement, and there&amp;#x27;s plenty of evidence that many of their problems came out of &amp;quot;free cash&amp;quot; from the government or casinos.  I personally think that over a large enough population free cash undermines the motivation to seek education or employment.  Many of the youth there have severe drug and alcohol problems, far greater than global statistics that their rural demographic would suggest.&lt;p&gt;As a counter point, you could look at the success of Native American tribes that receive government grants or casino payouts, vs those that don&amp;#x27;t, such as the Lumbee Indians.
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nativetimes.com&amp;#x2F;index.php&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;features&amp;#x2F;2470-lumbee-tribe-builds-capital-success&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nativetimes.com&amp;#x2F;index.php&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;features&amp;#x2F;2470-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the case of the Lumbee, there&amp;#x27;s still a strong sense of helping out folks that need it, but the help is at the discretion of the tribe, not a government (or casino).  Furthermore, they&amp;#x27;ve built that system without much federal help.&lt;p&gt;Note that I&amp;#x27;m not arguing for an all or nothing approach here, I think it&amp;#x27;s reasonable for the federal government to help the tribe financially.  I don&amp;#x27;t think it&amp;#x27;s reasonable to have the government give money directly to individuals in the tribe.</text></comment>
<story><title>New Findings from War on Poverty: Just Give Cash</title><url>http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-10-09/new-findings-from-war-on-poverty-just-give-cash</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>scholia</author><text>Did anybody actually read the story?&lt;p&gt;The key observation is that a study published in Nature &lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;found a correlation between child brain structure and family income. Simply put, family income is correlated with children’s brain surface area, especially among poor children. More money, bigger-brained kids.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is supported by the Cherokee study: when the families became a bit better off ($4,000 a year) the kids did better when they grew up.&lt;p&gt;So it&amp;#x27;s missing the point to argue about how grown-ups might (or might not) &amp;quot;waste&amp;quot; money and whether cash is better than other forms of welfare. The point is that bringing up children in poverty creates a worse outcome for society as a whole.&lt;p&gt;The fact is that $4,000 a year for 20 years is a very small amount compared with the cost of US police, courts, and prisons. If a poor kid grows up, gets a job and pays taxes, that&amp;#x27;s a massive win &lt;i&gt;for society&lt;/i&gt; compared with the same kid growing up in the sort of deprivation that leads to a life of crime and jail.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>yummyfajitas</author><text>Will the &lt;i&gt;average&lt;/i&gt; Cherokee child consume $80k of police&amp;#x2F;court&amp;#x2F;prison services during their lifetime? That&amp;#x27;s breakeven. Assuming &amp;quot;massive win&amp;quot; means another $80k of cost savings, that means that absent this intervention, the average Cherokee will cost society $160k over their lifetime.&lt;p&gt;Is this really true? Is the average Cherokee a criminal who spends 3 years in prison (google suggests prison costs a bit under $50k&amp;#x2F;year)?</text></comment>