On August 14, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law one of the most successful anti-poverty programs in the nation’s history. The Social Security Act’s old-age benefit was founded on a moral certainty: It was wrong that elderly Americans might suffer destitution when they were no longer able to work. The act promised that every worker would be able to count on support as they aged, however, their fortunes might change. The program was contentious at the time, but its passage was enabled by the rare circumstance of the Great Depression. The benefit for older Americans has expanded over time to become part of the basic infrastructure of American life. By one estimate, nearly 40 percent of all elderly people today would fall into poverty without it.
Buried deep in President Joe Biden’s pandemic stimulus, the American Rescue Plan is the seed of a similarly transformative government program. This program holds the promise of dramatically cutting child poverty and effectively eradicating its most extreme forms, nationwide. The expanded, fully refundable child tax credit sounds complicated, but the ideas behind it are simple, and its design has been tested in many other countries. It’s based on the principles that children deserve the opportunity to thrive, and that money can help.
Denne historien er fra June 2021-utgaven av The Atlantic.
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Denne historien er fra June 2021-utgaven av The Atlantic.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Boat Fish Don't Count
The wild, obsessive, dangerous pursuit of Montauk's biggest striped bass
The Anti-Rock Star
Leonard Cohen's battle against shameless male egoism
A Brief History of Yuval Noah Harari
How the scholar became Silicon Valley's favorite guru
Rachel Kushner's Surprising Swerve
She and her narrators have always relied on swagger-but not this time.
Men on Trips Eating Food
Why TV is full of late-career Hollywood guys at restaurants
You Think You're So Heterodox
Joe Rogan has turned Austin into a haven for manosphere influencers, just-asking-questions tech bros, and other \"free thinkers\" who happen to all think alike.
What Abortion Bans Do to Doctors
In Idaho and other states, draconian laws are forcing physicians to ignore their training and put patients' lives at risk.
THE LOYALIST KASH PATEL WILL DO EXACTLY WHAT TRUMP WANTS.
A 40-year-old lawyer with little government experience, he joined the administration in 2019 and rose rapidly. Each new title set off new alarms.
THE RADICAL CONVERSION OF MIKE LEE
IN 2016, HE TRIED TO STOP TRUMP FROM BECOMING PRESIDENT. BY 2020, HE WAS TRYING TO HELP TRUMP OVERTURN THE ELECTION. NOW HE COULD BECOME TRUMP'S ATTORNEY GENERAL.
HYPOCRISY, SPINELESSNESS, AND THE TRIUMPH OF DONALD TRUMP
He said Republican politicians would be easy to break. He was right.