This morning, in The New York Times, David Brooks gives Canadians a shout out. He writes:
According to recently released data, between 2015 and 2017, Canada reduced its official poverty rate by at least 20 percent. Roughly 825,000 Canadians were lifted out of poverty in those years, giving the country today its lowest poverty rate in history.
We did it, Brooks believes, because we approached poverty with a methodology:
A common model is one-donor-funding-one-program. Different programs compete for funds. They justify their existence using randomized controlled experiments, in which researchers try to pinpoint one input that led to one positive output. The foundation heads, city officials and social entrepreneurs go to a bunch of conferences, but these conferences don’t have much to do with one another.
In Canada it’s not like that. About 15 years ago, a disparate group of Canadians realized that a problem as complex as poverty can be addressed only through a multisector comprehensive approach. They realized that poverty was not going to be reduced by some innovation — some cool, new program nobody thought of before. It was going to be addressed through better systems that were mutually supporting and able to enact change on a population level.
So they began building citywide and communitywide structures. They started 15 years ago with just six cities, but now they have 72 regional networks covering 344 towns.
They begin by gathering, say, 100 people from a single community. A quarter have lived with poverty; the rest are from business, nonprofits and government.
They spend a year learning about poverty in their area, talking with the community. They launch a different kind of conversation. First, they don’t want better poor; they want fewer poor. That is to say, their focus is not on how do we give poor people food so they don’t starve. It is how do we move people out of poverty. Second, they up their ambitions. How do we eradicate poverty altogether? Third, they broaden their vision. What does a vibrant community look like in which everybody’s basic needs are met.
That doesn't mean that all is rosy. The Ford government is actively trying to undermine these structures. And, from what I read, if Jason Kenny is elected premier in Alberta, he'll do the same.
The Neanderthals did not go extinct. In fact, they're on the rise. Nevertheless, we must not lose sight of what we've achieved.
Image: Fox News
14 comments:
Not to fail to mention the bold Basic Income Experiment, initiated by the former Liberal Ontario Government. It was showing signs of working well to improve the lives of recipients, when the Ford Government cancelled it.
Exactly, brawnfire. Such a program would unify various programs and cut down on administrative costs. It would move away from the American model, which Brooks says is why Amricans are not making progress on poverty.
Don't know if you saw this article, Owen.
Proof of the fact the experiment was actually working; achieving what it was designed to do:
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/02/24/from-barely-surviving-to-thriving-ontario-basic-income-recipients-report-less-stress-better-health.html
The Star has been doing an excellent job on this file, brawnfire. But the Fordians have thrown the data in the dustbin. That fact says a great deal about who they are.
What burns my ass is that this party of libertarian milksops enjoys significant support from an electoral segment that entered the workforce and was able to acquire financial security, and often an accompanying attitude of superiority, in consequence of favourable working conditions that were made possible through the efforts and attention of their predecessors. Now we don’t accept that a guy should be able to make a living and be able to contribute with any significance to the support of a family by doing whatever the modern-day equivalents of putting your groceries in a bag. So where the hell did all these “working poor” come from? Get some union guys on those panels, but not just any union guys and certainly not the professionals. Get the ones who have an understanding of the parasitism of the human resources racket and the “first-job” culture it supports. Get those guys to straighten you out before they’re all gone.
Wait a minute. Now I remember something that a lot of smart guys keep telling me but I forget sometimes: “Unions have served their purpose.” That’s right. They helped the right families escape from the hammer-and-shovel class and move into the ranks of the situational rugged individualists. They got me my defined benefit pension, but a vibrant and dynamic economy can’t bear that expense for the new hires and still be “open for business” and “for the people”. I understand. What was I thinking?
We can hardly wait until the HR management models of the restauranteurs and the scab construction industry ooze or dribble into every space where they’ll fit (and that’s just about everywhere). Tell us where you rugged individualists work and we’ll make sure one of them does. We’ll turn your steady existence into a first-job festival for sure. And if we need to, this time we’ll granddaddy you guys out instead of in and then turn (or is it “churn”?) you over to the side-hustlers to complete your welcome to the rat society that you helped guys like Chainsaw Mike create.
We meet them every day. Time’s up on this one too. Put it in their faces.
Exactly, John. Time's up. We've seen this movie before and we know how it ends.
This is one thing that Trudeau can be credited for pursuing.
I keep looking for signs that we're embarking on some progressive restoration but there I come up dry. If only we could free ourselves from the neoliberal yoke we could find out what remains possible in this difficult era.
The frustrating part is that the neoliberal era is doomed, on its last legs, a victim of its own success if "success" is a fair word for it. However, save for the narrowest segment of the population, neoliberalism has lost its utility. It has failed us.
Chris Hedges sees this culminating in revolution, an outcome he warns could go very, very wrong.
That is an interesting comparison with the timeframe being the Libs in power. If those people did release the shackles of poverty through a guaranteed wage there is proof in the offing. Watch the numbers increase to a record number of those in poverty under these present ruling hooligan apes
Neo-libralism was doomed to fail, Mound. Yesterday kids across Ontario took to the streets to protest what Doug Ford is doing to public education in this province. Ford claimed that the unions put them up to it. He's is like a lot of people. He can't read the writing on the wall.
Your prediction is already coming true, zoombats. These dullards are engaged in a forced march backwards.
Okay Owen. Thanks for mentioning the kids. They were making themselves seen at almost every intersection on the main drag in my part of the city Friday afternoon. And representatives from my generation were present and contributing as well. When I was on my way into the grocery store, another old fart who was leaving approached me and handed me his shopping cart. He also took the time to mention disapprovingly that he understood they were protesting a class size increase of one student. I told him that his information applied to only one range of grades and suggested that we walk over and exchange information with some students carrying signs who were gaggling about sixty feet away. He looked at me with an expression that suggested that he didn't understand the language I was speaking and skulked off.
So that helps to explain both how an ignoramus like Doug could become the Premier of Ontario and why I have trouble hitting it off with people of my own age.
Doug didn't become premier on his own, John. It took a lot of other ignoramuses to put him there.
Ford's cuts to education are no surprise to us in B.C. when Ford was elected one of the first things he did was hire, as his advisor, Gordon Campbell, former Premier of B.C. while el gordo was premier of B.C. his first act was to fire 9K women in the health care sector. To this day it remains the largest mass firing of women in Canada. He and Christy Clark both attacked the health care and education system. They defunded education, resulting in more private schools. They privitized positions with in hospitals and also built hospitals as P3s.
Ford in my opinion, is out to break the Teachers Union in Ontario. Didn't work in B.C. though. If Ford and his corporate friends can remove the threats of Unions, then they can lower the wages of other groups of workers.
Trudeau helped reduce child poverty by revoking the tax credits the Conservatives and Harper were so fond of. Trudeau sent cheques or direct deposits. Its the best thing he has done in office. It reduced child poverty all over this country. If for no other reason he ought to be re elected. He reduces child poverty.
Of course Ford was keen to eliminate the Wynn guaranteed income experiment and refuses to make the conclusions available. The program works. For younger people, this isn't the first time Canada did this. The Liberals did it in a small town, I believe in Manitoba. It was quietly put to sleep by the Conservatives, Diefenbaker. Read a "study" which went back to those people decades later to ask how it had impacted their lives. For the majority, they were able to acquire skills and confidence to move forward with their lives and many never relied on assistance again. People like Ford, Scheer, Gordon Campbell want voters to believe people living below the poverty line are responsible for that themselves. it enables them to divide the working classes and conquer.
developing an economic under class works for corporations. for a country and its people not so much.
Corporations view a Gauranteed Annual Income as a threat to their hold on the political system, e.a.f. Actually, it helps stabalize the economy -- and their futures.
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