Growing Out Of Poverty
Growing Out Of Poverty
An Inquirer op-ed by Paul Levy reminds us that doing the same thing once more and once more will probable yield the same old results
Jun. 01, 2018
We've been having some frustrating internal debates here at The Denizen. We're taking part in Broke In Philly, a consortium of media outlets, all rightfully working to shed light on the shame that is our worst in the nation poverty charge per unit. Yet, each time nosotros profile a person or a program with some promise—as in today'due south piece by Jill Harkins—we're reminded simply how intractable the problem really is, and how incremental our focus tends to be.
I've been feeling stymied. Focusing on a program here and a plan there that works, or shows promise, runs the take a chance of painting a rosier scenario than we should. A little over fifty years ago, Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty when the national poverty rate was 19 pct; some $v trillion subsequently, it's 16 per centum today. Isn't it time to think differently about how to prosecute that war? I've written before that nosotros need to face up poverty in a more than pro-growth manner, instead of always reverting dorsum to raising taxes and redistributing; grow the pie, rather than share it in the course of ever-thinner slices.
This week, Paul Levy, CEO of the Center City District, wrote an important op-ed for the Inquirer that crystalized the case. Levy delves into the numbers and shows how our extreme poverty didn't just happen. "From 1970 to 2015, the city added 100,000 people living in poverty—2,200 per twelvemonth born, falling into, or arriving in poverty," he writes. "Simply during that same period, Philadelphia lost more than 500,000 working-course and heart-income residents—about 11,000 per year—as our suburbs expanded jobs by 110 percent.And so Philadelphia 's high poverty rate results in part from losing five times as many working and center-class residents as new poor people were added."
I reached out to Levy yesterday to talk nearly how so few of our discussions about poverty overlap with strategy sessions about economic growth. Here'southward an excerpt of our conversation:
LP: What jumped out at me is that y'all walk us through how we got here, and you say that the numbers "highlight that this is a problem of jobs." That seems elemental, but creating jobs doesn't seem like it'due south talked about when nosotros talk about poverty.
PL: In some sense, all I'm doing is repeating that erstwhile aphorism, that the best cure for poverty is a job. That we're a "Tale of 2 Cities" story is a myth that lets united states of america off the hook. We're actually one city that is not growing fast enough. We're growing slower than 23 of America'due south largest cities. New York and Boston have rebounded much faster afterward the Great Recession, and they take much lower poverty rates. Forty percent of those in our neighborhoods are reverse commuting to the suburbs, following jobs. Hither'due south a really remarkable stat: 81 percent of households who moved out of Philadelphia since 2010 had no children. Now, maybe some were near to take kids. But conspicuously many were post-obit jobs.
"We've seemed to have lost sight of the fact that tax policy is not but a mode to raise acquirement to pay for government programs, but also a way to stimulate growth by creating competitive weather for all," says Levy.
LP: You give Mayor Kenney credit for his emphasis on education. I agree. Just when I was in Cuba, I saw a vastly over-educated and under-employed population—every cab driver had a Master's Degree—because where in that location's no free enterprise, at that place are no jobs.
PL: That'due south correct—it'south non either/or, it's both. We seemed to take lost sight of the fact that tax policy is not just a way to heighten revenue to pay for government programs, only also a fashion to stimulate growth past creating competitive conditions for all.
LP: Hence, the program yous and Jerry Sweeney and a coalition of forrad-thinking leaders are advocating for, taxing what tin can't move—buildings—and redirecting dollars to lowering the wage tax, making it easier for businesses to compete, grow and rent.
PL: That's right. Permit'due south get dorsum to the '90s, let alone the '60s—we have to realize we're not going to get the same amount of help from the federal government. Nor is the state coming to our rescue. We've got to grow our own economic system.
LP: I'm encouraged that leaders similar Councilwoman Cindy Bass are coming forward with alternative fiscal plans that would make upkeep cuts rather than raise taxes. That strikes me as a new style to call up virtually running urban center regime. But I've also been wondering whether, by profiling small calibration poverty interventions, we'reunderscoring quondam approaches.
PL: A lot of the small calibration stuff is proficient and tin can help. It just can't happen in isolation. We also need policies that grow the larger economy and atomic number 82 to jobs.
Photo via Flickr 
Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/growing-out-of-poverty/
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