Describes the background, design, and findings of several large-scale, government sponsored income maintenance experiments. Suggests that whether or not the findings indicate that a guaranteed income program could ameliorate poverty, its implementation would be unlikely in view of systemic obstacles. (Author/GC)

A review of the history of the failure of public policies to alter the American distribution of income from the early Kennedy administration to Nixon's 1974 budget.

Changes in the Australian taxation system are discussed in reference to two central issues: (1) achieving horizontal and vertical equity within the tax-transfer system; and (2) interrelating taxation and social security systems. Horizontal equity embodies the principle that those in similar economic circumstances should pay the same levels of…

Society's preference for dependency reduction over poverty reduction in dealing with the lower classes stands in the way of greater anti-poverty impact of social policy. Discusses four approaches to poverty policy, their effectiveness, and the poverty assumptions they are based on. Examines why a workfare strategy could be effective. (PS)

In all developed countries, single-parent families are particularly vulnerable to poverty. In contrast to many European countries that provide some guaranteed income support for children, the United States has emphasized private responsibility, increasingly requiring child support from the other parent. The reliance on a private approach raises…

This paper examines the American experience of combining aid and services in public assistance, the parallel British experience, and some aspects of professional practice in order to highlight the implications of the money and morality issue for social welfare policy and social work practice. (Author)

Results of a review of problems associated with divorce indicate that not only are very large numbers of children involved, but divorce seems to be associated with serious effects for children and adults. A very substantial number of children of divorced parents live in poverty and nearly all experience substantial reductions in family income. One…

This report provides an overview of the poverty problem and possible solutions. The available statistics and their limitations are summarized. The complementary roles of income-maintenance and employment policies are discussed. Because employment policies are limited to those who can be made employable, the report concludes that liberal changes in…

An empirical analysis of the effects of alternative income maintenance programs, The Survey of Economic Opportunity, was used to obtain estimates of the labor supply parameters required to assess the implications of these programs for hours of work of male family heads. Labor supply response to changes in the family heads' net wages and in family…

"Strategies for Closing the Poverty Gap" by Gertrude Goldberg and Carol Lopate, which makes up the contents of this issue of the IRCD Bulletin, critically reviews income maintenance schemes, social insurance and public assistance programs, family allowances, the negative income tax, and full employment proposals. Of these plans to end poverty the…

These hearings before the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs are organized in several parts, of which this document is the first. These hearings begin with opening statements by a number of Senators. Following these, presentations are made by such witnesses as the following: Rev. Jesse Jackson, national director, Operation…

The Family Assistance Plan and the President's Commission on Income Maintenance Programs are both proposals which incorporate a negative income tax provision and which are aimed at reforming the present welfare system. This study is concerned with the effect these proposed income supplements will have on work decisions of male heads of families in…

This paper is an attempt to have an overview of poverty in one of the most affluent nations in the whole world, America, and what this means to its black population with special emphasis on the black youth. The purpose of this paper is: (1) to give a definition and some dimensions of poverty in the United States of America; (2) to find out the…

The urban impacts of the Program for Better Jobs and Income, the recent but unsuccessful attempt to reform the welfare system, are analyzed in this paper. The proposed results of this program indicate that these urban impacts would have been minimal, but consistent with an urban policy that seeks to improve the economic viability of distressed…

A decade's explosive growth in the scope, funding and complexity of national social policy has created serious problems in the United States. This first overview report notes that the Office of Economic Opportunity (now known as the Community Services Administration) has ceased to provide a focal point for national social policy. It was this state…