3 out of 4 Americans have no personal financial safety net

[memphis]

A man can indenture himself to the government and join the military. If they'll take him, which is a lot harder now that Iraq is over and jobs are hard to get. That's about all the help the government offers.

[greenforest32]

Well in addition to food stamps, opebo, we have unemployment insurance and medicaid that come to mind. Utility companies give a break on utility bills to low income folks. There is also Section 8 housing, which subsidizes housing costs. One can make the case that this is all inadequate perhaps, but one cannot make the case that there is no safety net at all.

Before the ACA's medicaid expansion (which is now optional), childless adults were not covered under Medicaid unless the state opted to cover them (which few did): http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/stories/2010/march/08/childless-adults-health-reform.aspx

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/07/05/what-happens-if-a-state-opts-out-of-medicaid-in-one-chart/

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[Indy Texas]

Well in addition to food stamps, opebo, we have unemployment insurance and medicaid that come to mind. Utility companies give a break on utility bills to low income folks. There is also Section 8 housing, which subsidizes housing costs. One can make the case that this is all inadequate perhaps, but one cannot make the case that there is no safety net at all.

Torie, the American welfare system is like something from a Victorian time warp. It's a hodgepodge of programs that vary by state out of paranoia about the federal government. It's based on the idea that the only people in society who deserve any kind of help are widows and orphans - hence the emphasis on helping women with children, or the elderly.

I'm a 25 year old single man with no children. I can't get Medicaid if I'm too poor to afford health insurance. If I can't afford a roof over my head, there's no help for me there; the limited number of vouchers go to families first. And yet I still have to pay payroll taxes to finance the healthcare and retirement of old people at a time when people over 65 have the lion's share of the money in this country.

The Right complains about the safety net encouraging broken families. If it does, it's because those are the only people they are willing to spend public money to help. In the '40s and '50s, intact families were explicitly kept out of public housing because conservatives thought it would encourage "idleness" in the husbands - the man should be out working, therefore a woman with a husband doesn't actually need help.

[opebo]

In the '40s and '50s, intact families were explicitly kept out of public housing because conservatives thought it would encourage "idleness" in the husbands - the man should be out working, therefore a woman with a husband doesn't actually need help.

Thanks IndyTexas for helping to set Torie straight.  One key difference between the 40s and 50s and the present day is that in those days, a 'husband working' meant that the family automatically escaped poverty.   Nowadays a job is typically a poverty trap for most people.

[Torie]

I don't claim to be an expert on the lucanae of transfer payment programs, but for some reason the earned income tax credit was not mentioned. But sure, single young men are probably the least attractive welfare candidates.

[opebo]

the earned income tax credit

That is a 'good one' (that is, a good subsidy for low-wage exploitative employers), but it does nothing for the unemployed.

[Cory]

I would really like for someone to emerge from the Republican Party that has something substantive to contribute to this problem.

They don't consider this a problem, but rather the goal.  An desperate and thus obedient and cheap-to-exploit working class is precisely their dream, and they have most definitely achieved it.  The GOP is probably the most successful political party in history.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

You know why most terrible marriages stay intact? money.

Forcing people to stay in bad relationships for the sake of finances? Yikes.

I also love the lack of nuance to forget that not everyone becomes a single-parent by choice.

[DC Al Fine]

You know why most terrible marriages stay intact? money.

Forcing people to stay in bad relationships for the sake of finances? Yikes.

I also love the lack of nuance to forget that not everyone becomes a single-parent by choice.

Actually, most unhappy marriages turn out happy a few years later, while people who divorce do not tend to be any happier during the same time frame. From a long term happiness point of view, yes most of these couples should stay together.

Single motherhood poses financial problems that need to be dealt with, but we should consider the cultural changes that have made it a significant problem in the first place. Single motherhood indicates a cultural shift. In earlier eras, marriage was considered an end game, and social pressure could be applied if someone got pregnant. This enforced a much lower rate of single motherhood and increased household savings.

[Torie]

You know why most terrible marriages stay intact? money.

Forcing people to stay in bad relationships for the sake of finances? Yikes.

I also love the lack of nuance to forget that not everyone becomes a single-parent by choice.

Actually, most unhappy marriages turn out happy a few years later, while people who divorce do not tend to be any happier during the same time frame. From a long term happiness point of view, yes most of these couples should stay together.

Single motherhood poses financial problems that need to be dealt with, but we should consider the cultural changes that have made it a significant problem in the first place. Single motherhood indicates a cultural shift. In earlier eras, marriage was considered an end game, and social pressure could be applied if someone got pregnant. This enforced a much lower rate of single motherhood and increased household savings.

Got any numerical data, as opposed to anecdotal evidence, for the bolded bit - and in particular the word "most?" 

[DC Al Fine]

You know why most terrible marriages stay intact? money.

Forcing people to stay in bad relationships for the sake of finances? Yikes.

I also love the lack of nuance to forget that not everyone becomes a single-parent by choice.

Actually, most unhappy marriages turn out happy a few years later, while people who divorce do not tend to be any happier during the same time frame. From a long term happiness point of view, yes most of these couples should stay together.

Single motherhood poses financial problems that need to be dealt with, but we should consider the cultural changes that have made it a significant problem in the first place. Single motherhood indicates a cultural shift. In earlier eras, marriage was considered an end game, and social pressure could be applied if someone got pregnant. This enforced a much lower rate of single motherhood and increased household savings.

Got any numerical data, as opposed to anecdotal evidence, for the bolded bit - and in particular the word "most?" 

http://www.americanvalues.org/UnhappyMarriages.pdf

[quote]Two out of three unhappily married adults who avoided divorce or separation ended up happily married five years later.

snip

One might assume, for example, that unhappy spouses who divorce and those who stay married are fundamentally two different groups; i.e., that the marriages that ended in divorce were much worse than those that survived.

snip

On the other hand, if only the worst marriages end in divorce, one would expect greater psychological benefits from divorce. Instead, looking only at changes in emotional and psychological well-being, we found that unhappily married adults who divorced were no more likely to report emotional and psychological improvements than those who stayed married. In addition, the most unhappy marriages reported the most dramatic turnarounds. Among those who rated their marriages as very unhappy, almost eight out of ten who avoided divorce were happily married five years later.

[Torie]

Thank you.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Hardly an impartial group...

[DC Al Fine]

Hardly an impartial group...

Hardly pointing out where they might be wrong.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

There's a lot of subjective definitions, they seem to know the results they want to achieve before asking (which leaves a lot to be desired when it comes those selected)... What they basically seem to be saying is 'psychologically' you're no better off divorced than in a bad marriage... but don't worry 2/3rds of them get better... but what defines that?

What a shock that a body who's sole purpose is to pontificate to people about how awful childbirth or of wedlock is and that divorce is the end of the world.... issue a study saying exactly that.

[Cory]

I also love the lack of nuance to forget that not everyone becomes a single-parent by choice.

Modern Conservatism in a nutshell.