Poverty And Social Welfare In The United States by Donald Tomaskovic-devey

Author:Donald Tomaskovic-devey [Tomaskovic-devey, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Sociology, Poverty & Homelessness
ISBN: 9781000307870
Google: WK2bDwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 52901315
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1987-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Examining the Merits of the New Structural Critique of Poverty

States play a decisive role in formulating and conducting AFDC programs. They are largely responsible for setting standards of eligibility, defining minimum basic needs, and determining the extent to which AFDC payments cover official levels of need.[5] Consequently, states are used as the unit of analysis in this study. I focus on the 1960s and 1970s.

An inconsistency emerges as soon as the observable data are applied to the new structural critique of poverty. In some respects the data conform to the critique, but in other respects the critique appears to be unsupported. In Figure 6.1, plots A and B reveal the extent to which the rate of poverty among families is inversely related to contemporaneous levels of monthly AFDC transfers per recipient family. A floor effect is suggested, such that beyond a certain point of generosity, AFDC transfers are virtually unrelated to the rate of family-poverty. Yet the simple linear relationship is strong in both 1960 and 1980. States most generous in their distribution of AFDC transfers tend to have the lowest levels of poverty. Despite this, the criticisms of AFDC reviewed above are also consistent with much of the data. Plot C shows the relationship between states' average monthly AFDC transfers per recipient family between 1960 and 1980 and changes in the rate of family-poverty over the same two decades. There is a strong pattern wherein states least generous in their provision of AFDC transfers experienced the greatest declines in poverty. Moreover, plot D indicates that states providing the lowest levels of AFDC transfers experienced

Figure 6.1 Scatter plots of AFDC transfers, family-poverty, and female headed families, 1980-1960.

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