Universal Health Care, Childcare and a Guaranteed Minimum Income in the United States Guaranteed minimum income is advocated by some as a solution to the problems of welfare, poverty and homelessness. Others argue that a guaranteed annual income should be a right provided to everyone without strings. Since everyone or at least their parents and grand parents shared in the creation of the wealth of today's society, they should now receive a share of that wealth. The guarantee income idea, found ground in the 1960's, two extremes were opposed. Milton Freidman wrote in "Capitalism and Freedom", that a negative income tax should be extended to low income families. Unfortunately Friedman's proposal would have provided only about half the income needed to exceed half the poverty level. Another economist, Robert Theobald proposed a universal guaranteed income that would not be tied to acceptance of work. In the 1960's Theobald predicted that automation would continue to eliminate jobs and therefor, income should be separated from employment. He was attacked from suggesting a jobless future. (http://coss.net.au/library/cat/2638.html) Martin Luther King Jr. explained in 1967 why he supported a guaranteed annual income: " A host of positive psychological changes inevitably will result from widespread economic security. The dignity of the individual will flourish when the decisions concerning his life and in his won hands, when he has the assurance that his income is stable and certain, and when he knows that he has the means to seek self-improvement." Nearly thirty years later, this year's welfare "reform" threatens the guaranteed income for the poor. (http://www.progress.org/dividend/cdking.html) In 1996, Robert Theobald returned to the subject of a guaranteed income. Theobald believes "people would spend most of their lives on self-development, on relationships, on the arts, on finding purpose and meaning. Sufficient goods would be available and the quality of life would just be better. One would agree with Mr. Theobald when it comes to a guaranteed income. (http://www.indra.com/transform/tlc/rtpage.html) Another big issue is Universal HealthCare. Over 42 million Americans are uninsured and millions more are at risk of losing their healthcare. The US is the only industrialized nation without a national guarantee of health care for all. The recent World Health Organization report ranked the US Health system 37th in the world based on what experts estimate could be accomplished with the resources available in the country, and only 55th in fairness.
"Paul Samuelson explains that the present income structure is grossly unfairly distributed. If we made an income pyramid out of a child's blocks, with each layer portraying $1,000 of income, the peak would be far higher than the Eiffel Tower, but almost all of us would be within a yard of the ground'" (Kalra 10).
In the article “The Case For Free Money” James Surowiecki expresses that Universal Basic Income is a tool to fight against poverty and help the economy and should be recognized as a helpful welfare program. Surowiecki starts the article with an example of a successful trial of U.B.I from the past called Mincome to show the idea in the real world. The experiment paved way for others to jump onto the idea of a U.B.I. Surowiecki goes on to show that U.B.I.s have been a popular idea to ending poverty with past American leaders and that today's people on both sides of thinking politically see the program as a way to fight poverty or end it. The article also explains that the idea of U.B.I.s is becoming more popular and America isn’t the only one
Going back to 1978, the typical male worker was making around 48,000 dollars per year while the average person in the wealthy group of the 1 percent earned 390,000 dollars per year. By 2010, the typical male worker earned less than in 1978 whereas the person in the top 1 percent earned more than twice as much as before. Today in America, 400 people have more wealth than half the population of the United States. Reich explains that a strong middle class is what gives our economy stability. This leads to the fact, that 70 percent of the economy is based on the consumer. If the middle class’ wages declin...
On a global scale, the United States is a relatively wealthy country of advanced industrialization. Unfortunately, the healthcare system is among the costliest, spending close to 18% of gross domestic product (GDP) towards funding healthcare (2011). No universal healthcare coverage is currently available. United States healthcare is currently funded through private, federal, state, and local sources. Coverage is provided privately and through the government and military. Nearly 85% of the U.S. population is covered to some extent, leaving a population of close to 48 million without any type of health insurance. Cost is the primary reason for lack of insurance and individuals foregoing medical care and use of prescription medications.
Healthcare has now become one of the top social as well as economic problems facing America today. The rising cost of medical and health insurance impacts the livelihood of all Americans in one way or another. The inability to pay for medical care is no longer a problem just affecting the uninsured but now is becoming an increased problem for those who have insurance as well. Health care can now been seen as a current concern. One issue that we face today is the actual amount of healthcare that is affordable. Each year millions of people go without any source of reliable coverage.
Many people of which do not know, or even understand programs, or funds that can assist them in these situations they are in. People not knowing or cannot afford health care is a huge problem especially considering the fact that many Americans are elderly or suffer from acute disease, disabilities, and even mental disorders. Without proper health care many of these Americans will suffer tremendously and their symptoms may develop even worse without proper medication and help. This cannot be given without affordable health care.
The concept of the "working poor" has gained prominence in the post-welfare reform era. As welfare rolls shrunk, the focus shifted from the dependent poor to the working poor. It was obvious that without substantial outside support, even families with full-time low-wage workers were still earning less than the official poverty line. And while American society purports that anyone can prosper if they work hard enough, it became apparent that with inadequate opportunity or bad luck, a growing number of families could not attain the American dream, or even break the cycle of poverty. The new challenge for American social policy is to help the working poor lift themselves out of poverty. That's why progressives who supported ending welfare as we know it have set a new goal -- the government should "make work pay" so that no one who works full time is poor.
The U.S. expends far more on healthcare than any other country in the world, yet we get fewer benefits, less than ideal health outcomes, and a lot of dissatisfaction manifested by unequal access, the significant numbers of uninsured and underinsured Americans, uneven quality, and unconstrained wastes. The financing of healthcare is also complicated, as there is no single payer system and payment schemes vary across payors and providers.
While many believe that social welfare in the United States began with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal plan, the first American movement towards welfare came from a different Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt. He stated in his New Nationalism address that “every wise struggle for human betterment” objectives are “to achieve in large measure equality of opportunity... destroy privilege, and give to the life and citizenship of every individual the highest possible value both to himself and the commonwealth” (Roosevelt). Behind such a speech with charged language about democracy and fundamental equality, Roosevelt was instituting welfare programs such as limiting word days, setting a minimum wage for women, social insurance for the elderly and disabled, unemployed social insurance, and a National Health Service. After his proposal came Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom initiative, FDR’s aforementioned New Deal, John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier, and Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society (Historical Development). While social welfare is steeped in America’s history, there is a very contemporary debate on its effectiveness and ethicality. People argue that the reason welfare has such a long history in America is because it helps people get out of poverty, equalizes opportunities, reduces crime, and helps children; in essence, that welfare works. Many in opposition to welfare disagree, citing that the system creates a culture of dependence, is easily abused, hurts the middle class and costs the government too much on a system that isn’t wholistically addressing the needs of the American people.
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy raised the current welfare payments and renamed the program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Kennedy allowed states to require work in order to receive welfare, but didn’t require it. Kennedy also laid out the new goal for welfare in America, it was to “end poverty, not just alleviate poverty” (Background: Time for a new Approach). Kennedy said welfare should be “a hand up, not a hand out." Welfare continued to change...
In 1931, James Truslow Adam, an American writer and historian, created the term ‘American Dream’. The American Dream promises equal chance to gain success in any desired way, regardless of gender, race, nationality, or any other form of discrimination to each individual. However, there is a debate that the American Dream is not available to everyone, as they are incapable of jumping the incredible hurdle of poverty. Over 43 million people in the United States of America live on less than a dollar and twenty-five cents a day. In 1966, US president Lyndon Johnson declared a war on poverty, similar to President Nixon’s war on drugs. At the beginning of the War on Poverty, the poverty rate was 14.7%. America’s official poverty rate today is
Income inequality has affected American citizens ever since the American Dream came to existence. The American Dream is centered around the concept of working hard and earning enough money to support a family, own a home, send children to college, and invest for retirement. Economic gains in income are one of the only possible ways to achieve enough wealth to fulfill the dream. Unfortunately, many people cannot achieve this dream due to low income. Income inequality refers to the uneven distribution of income and wealth between the social classes of American citizens. The United States has often experienced a rise in inequality as the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, increasing the unstable gap between the two classes. The income gap in America has been increasing steadily since the late 1970’s, and has now reached historic highs not seen since the 1920’s (Desilver). UC Berkeley economics professor, Emmanuel Saez conducted extensive research on past and present income inequality statistics and published them in his report “Striking it Richer.” Saez claims that changes in technology, tax policies, labor unions, corporate benefits, and social norms have caused income inequality. He stands to advocate a change in American economic policies that will help close this inequality gap and considers institutional and tax reforms that should be developed to counter it. Although Saez’s provides legitimate causes of income inequality, I highly disagree with the thought of making changes to end income inequality. In any diverse economic environment, income inequality will exist due to the rise of some economically successful people and the further development of factors that push people into poverty. I believe income inequality e...
Universal Basic Income (also coined as the Basic Income Guarantee) by some, is a rather new concept, in which all citizens would receive a fixed sum of money, annually. This fixed sum would come from the government through taxation. This summation would be given out to citizens on top of any other income that they have already generated annually. Thus, Mr. Warren Buffett (one of the wealthiest men in America), an average office worker, people in the working class, and people living below the poverty line would all be receiving the same amount of money from the government. While its intent, which is to reduce or even eradicate poverty, is excellent in nature, the practice is expected to be extremely expensive and expansive.
The problem in America is the health care crisis. We all fear government ran programs and operations so we are all reluctant to allow this government aided system into our nation. We all wonder how we spend the most amount of money on health care than any other nation and our quality of care is not as high as them other nations. Next year our health care cost is expected to escalate to 4$ trillion dollars. The quality of health care still remains low. In the United States there are high number of people that do not have insurance at all. There are also people paying ridiculous prices for insurance it all has created a modern day crisis and a highly debeated topic in America.
The US health system has both considerable strengths and notable weaknesses. With a large and well-trained health workforce, access to a wide range of high-quality medical specialists as well as secondary and tertiary institutions, patient outcomes are among the best in the world. But the US also suffers from incomplete coverage of its population, and health expenditure levels per person far exceed all other countries. Poor measures on many objective and subjective indicators of quality and outcomes plague the US health care system. In addition, an unequal distribution of resources across the country and among different population groups results in poor access to care for many citizens. Efforts to provide comprehensive, national health insurance in the United States go back to the Great Depression, and nearly every president since Harry S. Truman has proposed some form of national health insurance.