Welfare State

[kelley at pulpculture.org]

At 03:23 PM 5/11/02 -0400, Doug Henwood wrote:
>Nathan Newman wrote:
>
>>But out of a $2 trillion federal
>>budget, and about another trillion dollars at the state and local level, the
>>money goes overwhelmingly to poor and working class folks.
>
>Overwhelmingly? Could you be a bit more specific? The U.S. welfare state, 
>such as it is, does very little to reduce poverty - i.e., compared to 
>other countries, it barely adjusts market income distributions. Thanks to 
>the mortgage interest tax deduction, the bulk of federal housing subsidies 
>go to upper income households - over 75% of benefits go to the top two 
>income quintiles <http://www.nlihc.org/pubs/cpgraph5.htm>. Social Security 
>is mildly redistributive, which is a blessing, but it's under constant 
>attack, and I underline "mildly." Military, cop, and prison spending can 
>be said to benefit working class soldiers, cops, and wardens, but that's 
>probably not what you have in mind, is it? So just what are you talking about?
>
>Doug

oh, i don't know, if we took some position on this list certainly, Nathan 
could just maintain that it all goes to the working class, since making 
distinctions between poor, working, middle, and upper middle class is 
needlessly pitting strata against one another!

<snort>

kelley