How does welfare reduce poverty?

Remarkably, little attention has been paid to the impact of welfare programs on a summary measure of the family's well being: the family's poverty status. Presumably, an important goal of the various programs in the welfare state is to reduce the poverty rate among disadvantaged households. read more

Welfare's effect on poverty. The effect of social welfare on poverty is controversial. Since the goal of welfare programs is to reduce poverty, it has been debated, primarily in the United States, whether or not welfare programs achieve this goal. read more

Welfare probably does not *always* reduce poverty, but for the sake of the discussion, let’s only consider when it does. Some (very) big simplifications are made in this answer. Either because I do not want to over explain, either because I do not have the knowledge in enough details to do so without taking the day. read more

That it does is an assumption at the heart of our nation’s very large antipoverty programs. In fact those programs were instituted for the purpose of making themselves obsolete. read more

] Since the goal of welfare programs is to reduce poverty, it has been debated, primarily in the United States, whether or not welfare programs achieve this goal. Welfare programs enjoy more popularity in virtually every other developed country. read more

Without food stamps, the poverty rate would be 17.10% – another 8 million Americans would be living in poverty. Without social security, the poverty rate for Americans 65 and older would be 52.67% instead of the current 14.6%. read more