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Were things better for low income communities before those attempts to help? I'm young, so honest question given minimal experience. Most of these programs seem to short-term help, with some minor annoying externalities and at worst flatish long-term results.

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Well if you look at poverty graph there was HUGE reduction in poverty up until massive social programs which lock people into them

The Welfare trap, going back decades shows that it is almost impossible to get out of it because the way benefits roll off you end up losing $1.5 in government "assistance" for every $1 you make in wages, so people can not escapse

Plans like the Negative income tax would be far far more humane and actually help reduce poverty

When you say going decades back do you possibly mean back to the 80s when welfare queen became the boogeyman of the day and welfare projects were hobbled and slashed? Or do you mean back to the New Deal era where millions were brought of poverty with government work programs?

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