New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has started a new pilot program which will reward poor residents for good behavior. In an effort to stop the ‘cycle of repeated setbacks’, Bloomberg has raised over $43 million in private money to fund this new program. Modeled after similar programs which have drawn praise for changing behavior of the poor in Brazil and Mexico, Bloomberg’s program would offer cash rewards for accomplishing fundamental tasks.

“Among the possible rewards in New York’s program are $25 for attending parent-teacher conferences, $25 per month for a child who maintains a 95 percent school attendance record, $400 for graduating high school, $100 for each family member who sees the dentist every six months and $150 a month for adults who work full time.”

The principles behind this program are noble, however I believe they could also outline the root causes of poverty. If minor cash rewards have the effect of changing the behavior of poor people in this program, allowing them to rise up out of poverty, the program will certainly be considered a success. At the same time, if the program is successful in it’s goal, it would certainly raise the doubts of many people if our current welfare system should be obsolete.

Many people I have spoken with feel the Welfare system and all programs which fall beneath it should not be considered “entitlements” which are owed, but privileges which are earned. If Bloomberg’s program is successful in NYC, I hope our Federal Government takes note of it and does away with entitlements, instead focusing on helping those who help themselves.

Unfortunately this would never happen, as most people in Government feel as Margy Waller does. Margy Waller is co-founder of Inclusion, a research and policy group in Washington and former domestic policy adviser in the Clinton administration. With regards to this program she feels “It just reinforces the impression that if everybody would just work hard enough and change their personal behavior we could solve poverty in this country, and that’s not reflected in the facts”

I am not exactly sure what “facts” Margy is referring to, but I do not see the harm in impressing upon people the benefits of hard work. After all, before the Government started taxing Peter to give handouts to Paul, everyone in our Country was required to work hard to succeed. Hard work is what made America what it is today.

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Education, Politics, Taxes