The Documentaries

1. The Documentaries • The documentaries provide a great deal of insight into the lives of the poor; particularly insight into why they are poor and why it is often so hard to help them. • The documentaries also provide insight into the diversity of the poverty population. • The poor highlighted represent a range of different problems.

2. The Documentary: Ending Welfare As We Know It I. Still, in one sense, the cases are not typical of the poor. Those individuals and families featured are likely to be long-term poor. As you know, most Americans who fall into poverty do not remain below the poverty level for long periods, but may cycle in and out of poverty. II. The documentary does not stereotype the poor (i.e., it does not give the impression that only minorities are poor), but it does not include all the major groups of American poor. It leaves out, for example, the elderly poor, two-parent working poor families, people who are suffering serious illness or injury, and the angry, frightened, emotionally disturbed poor (e.g. many of the homeless) who may reject help. III. Men you notice are missing from most of the families. This, as we know, is typical.

3. IV. The documentary shows that often the poor, including those with “good attitudes” make serious mistakes: they smoke, quit jobs before they have another one, take too long to address problems, and perhaps worst of all fail to plan for the future; e.g., having children without thinking about the consequences. V. Elba, the teenager, is a good example of a young teen mother. She is a bit innocent and naïve and does not think about consequences. She has no reservations about living off welfare (she thinks it is a good idea). She badly underestimates the cost of the lifestyle she hopes to live, or where the money would come from. Elba is a third generation welfare recipient. Her mother is a poor parent, a terrible role model, and the parents of her teenage boyfriend are no better. Elba would have benefitted from better parenting and better role models. (Where does mom meet her boy friends?) VI. Some organizations and individuals argue that life for the American poor is not that difficult. However, the poor in the documentary are sometimes homeless, short on food, often do not have utilities, have serious transportation and child care problems, and live with a great deal of stress. This is typical. There is nothing good or comfortable about being poor.

4. VII. In every family with children, to compensate for their home environment the children really need to be in a high quality day care, a good school, or an inclusive environment like KIPP. This is a form of structural discrimination. Children do not get to pick their parents or the neighborhoods they grow up in. VIII. Some of the children might be better off if they were removed from their household—perhaps the child of the “depressed lady,”--perhaps those of Ms. Kracker. IX. The poor in the film are typical in the sense that they are generally single parents, badly educated, and very low on marketable skills. X. Some have so little education and are so naïve that they would be very difficult to train or educate. XI. Some of the poor in the film may need medical care which they most likely will not receive. They may be depressed, addicted, and/or dispirited. XII. As the film shows, private charities play a very important role in helping the poor. Hard to measure but billions in aid every year.

5. XIII. Under current laws, it may not be possible to help many of the poor. Some fall outside the boundaries of the programs and cannot meet the eligibility standards. Others probably cannot be given much help by programs such as TANF. Some may have been spoiled by welfare and may be unable or unwilling to help themselves. Some may have emotional or mental problems that will remain undiagnosed and treated.

6. What about MS. Kracker? Can she be helped? • What about the depressed lady? Is she just a lazy bum? • Was the young woman who claimed that she could not find child care really trying? • What is the problem with the mixed-race couple in Florida? • Will determination help the “determined lady?”

7. The Second Documentary

8. Living with a Hole in your Pocket

9. Focuses on: Why Work Does Not Work • Wages that are too low to allow people to avoid poverty, or other problems related to food, housing, transportation, health care. • Histories that make all their problems more complex: single-parenting, credit problems, living in communities with a depressed job market, criminal backgrounds.

10. Social services limited by: • Our measurement of poverty • Asset limits—cannot effectively build savings. • Certification and recertification requirements • Complex paperwork • Multiple agencies • Often the poor just give up and stop asking for help

11. They often need a way to: • Get out of debt • Obtain a better credit score • Build a nest egg • Obtain a better wage • Gain access to affordable housing • Obtain Amnesty: A fresh start by putting their background behind them. • Obtain more education and better job skills

17. How are the Poor Coping • In a recent NYT article poor young mothers said they are surviving by selling food bought with SNAP, selling blood, skipping meals, shoplifting, doubling up with friends, scavenging trash bins, and returning to violent partners. • Most of the mothers interviewed were single and receiving little or no help from the fathers of their children.

18. The states have trimmed the welfare roles and now refuse to let people back on during a recession. • Compared to the late 1990s, the national welfare rolls are down by 68%. • The best estimate is that some four million mothers and children live in homes where the single female parent is jobless and without cash aid. • Just one in five poor children receives cash aid, the lowest level in nearly 50 years.

19. Poverty can cast a wide net. • As the economies of Europe have floundered, suicide over “economic distress” has been increasing. • The victims tend to be men, particularly small business owners. • As their businesses fail (many long-term family businesses), some are committing suicide. • Two countries have had no increase in the suicide—Sweden and Finland.

20. In Sweden and Finland they decided to convert most of their unemployment compensation funds to a program to rebuild infrastructure. • The unemployed are given jobs rather than cash support. • These countries have found that those put to work are happier and more hopeful about the future.

21. How Do we Design a Real Solution? • I think that would mean reducing the number of people who ever have any need to have contact with the welfare system. • I see one solution: better education systems. • The problem, I think, is that we have not come to accept how hard it is to educate much of our population. • Whatever it Takes documents this problem.

22. Canada is a very smart, idealistic, compassionate person. • But he failed to understand how big a challenge he faced. • He needed to start early, and work with parents to get them engaged and supportive. • He did not understand how important it is to place emphasis on teaching both cognitive and non-cognitive skills.

23. He needed to focus on skills such as proper behavior, patience, persistence, ability to set and work toward long-range goals. He needed to help the student learn to be conscientious. • All American schools need to learn the importance of soft skills. • The evidence suggests that we should start school for all kids at 3 with a goal of never letting kids fall behind and teaching both cognitive and non-cognitive skills.

24. The research shows that educational success breeds success, failure breeds failure. • The best evidence at this time is that not all kids will succeed even in the best designed environments. • But some 70% or so do well. This is much better than current rates and a better educated and more confident youth would be better suited for the jobs of the future and fewer would turn to crime. • Reducing crime rates would more than pay for the cost of paying for better education systems.