Monday, September 2, 2019

Giving Fish v. Teaching to Fish

Will guaranteed incomes help the poor escape poverty? An experiment taking place in Jackson is attempting to found out if such is true.  The Washington ____ reported yesterday:

JACKSON, Miss. — Cheryl Gray had sat through so many presentations about programs to lift herself out of poverty that she could practically recite all the advice. But the one she heard last November seemed too generous to be true.

A nonprofit organization was looking to give 20 African American single mothers living in public housing $1,000 each month for a year. They’d be able to use the money in any way they pleased....

In Jackson, Gray just wanted to escape poverty. She had grown up poor and was pregnant at 16, which is when she started hearing people say she’d “never become nothing.”

“I wanted to show I could do it all on my own,” she said.

She tried to defy the stereotypes by staying in school and going to Jackson State University. Her bachelor’s degree in social work led her to $40,000 in student loan debt, a busted car and a cleaning job that paid no more than $11 an hour.

She had gotten used to the sound of gunshots while living in government-subsidized housing. The hallways smelled like old cigarettes, and her two children — Alonzo, 9, and Allonah, 7 — slept in the same room. An emptiness surrounded them: vacant lots and pothole-laden streets with no sidewalks, boarded-up houses and abandoned strip malls....

“My mothers need cash,” said Aisha Nyandoro, also helped to establish the Jackson-based program.

They fretted over bills. They’d miss work because they couldn’t repair a car, or because they couldn’t afford child care. “I just need $25,” Nyandoro recalled one mother telling her. The woman’s child had qualified for a citywide science fair, but she didn’t have enough cash to pay for registration.

The requirements accompanying public assistance such as food stamps and housing vouchers left her clients “pigeonholed,” without the flexibility to craft budgets based on their specific situations, Nyandoro said.

This search for cash — not politics or job-sapping technology — is why she said she sought out a fledgling foundation co-chaired by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes called the Economic Security Project, which is sponsoring guaranteed-income projects in Stockton, Calif., and Chicago...

Of the 110 women eligible to be a part of the program, only 38 applied.

The 20 women selected for the experiment in November 2018 earned an average of $12,000 a year at the time. Fifteen of the women were working. Twelve had reported being so short on cash that they had used an emergency lender in the preceding six months....

Some of the women talked about their gift-filled Christmases and sported new hairstyles. Some said they took a sick day for the first time. They began paying off overdue electricity bills and high-interest loans.

Kira Johnson, a social worker, asked how much money the women had saved.

“I blew all of it,” Gray recalled. “It only took a weekend.”

Most of the women said the same thing. In a month, nearly all of the money had vanished.

The situation exposed a truth about poverty. The women knew how to make minimum-wage paychecks stretch, Johnson said, but they had little experience with discretionary income....

The discussion at the shop exposed another truth for the women: Receiving money would not be enough on its own to lift them out of poverty. If they were going to save anything, the women said they would need a little more guidance and support about how to do it. Johnson set them up with a financial adviser who taught them about savings accounts, interest rates and building credit.

Soon, Johnson said, the women began sharing small victories. One woman used the extra money to take time off and finish community college. Some sent their children to day camp. One woman filled her gas tank to drive her children to see their grandfather in Pennsylvania. The children had never met him.

At the end of six months, none of the women reported using an emergency lender. Nearly all said they had enough money to buy school supplies, when fewer than half had said that before. They reported cooking more balanced meals, visiting the doctor and attending church more often....

Gray’s relationship with money changed dramatically. She used to want to put her children in the hottest clothes to prove that she was providing for them, but now saw the value of visiting the clearance racks. She paid off $4,000 in credit card debt. She found an $11-an-hour teaching job at a preschool and another part-time job, so she could save more money. As her new bank account grew from zero to $1,000 to $2,000, she began looking to leave the projects.  When a friend told her about a program to help low-income families buy houses, she decided to apply.... Rest of article.

The rest of the story is worth reading.  


Kingfish note:  Giving someone a fish turns into teaching her how to fish.  

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

You think your readers care about something positive?

Please...this site is for trolling and hate only

Next

Anonymous said...

If, you give a man a fish... you can feed him for a day.
BUT....If, you teach a man to fish...you can't ever get him to come to work!

Anonymous said...

The last thing in the world anyone should ever mention is "guaranteed income" it's the surest way to increase poverty and create a permanent underclass. Instruction in personal responsibility and financial literacy should be emphasized as part of elementary and secondary education for everybody and it should be required before one penny of "aid" is given to anybody.

Anonymous said...

Graduate high school, don't have children before marriage, and have a job. Those three things are typically all you need to not be statistically doomed. Obviously it is not a guarantee, but those three things flip the numbers in your favor.

Cynical Sam said...

Group hug!

If you "cherry pick" the candidates, the program will be a success.

If you randomly select candidates, the money will be spend on bling, wigs, wheels, and nose candy, and certainly not on resume writing kits, work boots, work gloves, and interview appropriate clothes.

These do-gooders need to read Mr. Jason Riley's excellent book "Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed." (Note: Mr. Riley is a black man).



Anonymous said...

C.J. Walker was the 1st selfmade female millionaire in this country. She was the 1st free person to be born in her family... her parents former slaves. She didn't use her life as a excuse but persevered to fortune. Ended up living 2 houses down from Rockefeller. Ben Carson overcame single parent home in inner city Detroit and mom couldn't read. Today we make excuses bc government gives us excuses and handouts.

Anonymous said...

You think your readers care about something positive?

Please...this site is for trolling and hate only

Next


KF's maniacal stalker never takes a day off from regurgitating yellow bile and animus. Pity this weak control freak.

Anonymous said...

What I take from the article is:

1. Changing a life and breaking a cycle requires sustained effort over time. It takes personal growth, as well as resources. Many people need help, are willing to receive help, and will do their part to put that help into action. This happens on personal level, one person at a time.

2. "Of the 110 women eligible to be a part of the program, only 38 applied." This also tells me that many people aren't willing to change, and aren't willing to receive any help that requires them to do anything on their part.


What I take from the foregoing comments to the article is that lot of people aren't interested in the messy, hard work it takes to change one life at a time. They want to either fix or condemn everyone else in broad strokes of a pen (or a keyboard).

Anonymous said...

I wonder what type of media attention I would recieve if I set up special programs just for helping white males learn how to succeed?

Anonymous said...

I wonder why you never see or hear about destitute Asians on public assistance from the taxpayer?

Anonymous said...

11:12 nailed it with one addition-only have as many children as you can afford and are willing to participate fully in raising.

Anonymous said...

Half of the people who live in Madison will see their jobs gone forever in a few years and they will not be able to get another one. They will be just like the people in this article. That is why we will eventually see some type of minimum income program to keep society from going down the drain.

Anonymous said...

I volunteer for the next cash give away.
When do I get my first check?

Anonymous said...

I wonder if 3:09 and 3:22 are alt-right nazi's?

Anonymous said...

A quick view of the IRS 990, shows the ED's salary is over 10% of revenues and they have a sweet pension plan as well. For a $1 million charity in 2017, she is getting paid a lot more than many ED's at larger nonprofits in the area.

To give you a comparison, Stewpot is a $2.3 million charity and the ED makes about $20,000 less than the Springboard ED. And I don't see any expenses for pensions.

Look at the list of board members between the two, sums up everything. I spy a newly elected attorney on Springboard.

Anonymous said...

The difference between this and a typical middle-class family is that when I need extra money if I can't pay for all that I need I use a credit card. Unlike UBI, I have to pay the credit card back. I hate it they are in poverty and don't have access to credit or savings. But, life choices are more to blame. The story said one of the women had a degree in social work and she had a cleaning job. She wasted that $40,000 degree by not being a good social worker. There are way too many social worker jobs in Mississippi for her not to be able to find one that pays a living wage. Although, I wouldn't put it past JSU to have failed her as well by not providing an accountable education that prepared her for the real world.

Anonymous said...

Pregnant at 16, children ages 7 and 9. She clearly didn’t learn her lesson. I don’t care how much free money you give someone, if they are farting out children at a young age, there’s really not much chance they’ll come back from that. Nor will their children. It just perpetuates. If you graduate high school, don’t have out of wedlock children at a young age, and don’t blow your time and money on substance abuse, you’ll probably have a halfway decent chance at not ending up in this situation.

The world population hit a billion for the first time around 1900. Its well over 7 billion now. Housing is scarce, natural resources are scarce, jobs that pay a living wage are scarce. Many of our issues stem simply from poor people producing lots more poor people. You want to give free money? Tie it to voluntary, elective, reversible sterilization.

Get a Friggin' Job! said...

I identify as being very poor. Where's my free shit?

Anonymous said...

I've always wondered why American Christian Teenagers need to go to some foreign country to teach people how to draw water out of a lake to water a garden they also taught them how to plant. As if these people have lived for centuries not knowing how to do either.

Now I read that young, hopeless females actually have to be taught how not to blow a thousand dollars. They don't know how to save thirty dollars over the course of eleven months for December Christmas presents but they damned sure know how to get to the salon and sign up for Angel Tree.

Greed, entitlement, and systemic cultural sloth are alive and well.

Anonymous said...

The article states that she has saved $13k. Does that mean in the bank? Or collective savings v

Anonymous said...

Less the 3% of 2 parent African American households are in poverty. The issue is the welfare system encourages no marriage. There is your issue. Too many single parent households as opposed to before welfare was introduced. 2 parent household was the norm in African American households. Lanier high school put out more national merit semi finalist than any school in the state of Mississippi.

Anonymous said...

One common thread, single mother, most with multiple children. Until this cycle stops no a,punt of free money will solve the problem. I hate the termsBaby Momma and Baby Daddy.

Kingfish said...

Read the whole story.

Yes, the woman screwed up. Had a kid at age 16 and then ran up $40,000 in student loan debt on a friggin' social work degree. Should that condemn her for life?

She had the desire to get ahead. That is the main catalyst. She listened to the counselor, learned, and started getting ahead. She worries about not reading to her kids. She wants a better life. She doesn't mind working two jobs. Y'all bitch about those who don't help themselves and then bitch about the ones who are trying to help themselves.

If a non-profit wants to help her, so what? It's private money so why should you care?

Anonymous said...

The last part about teaching people to be better money managers is the last thing on the democratic agenda. Why do you think there are so many no credit no problem shitty car lots and crap stores that cater to this demographic? It is because as long as you are giving away "earned income tax credits", they will spend it on cell phones, big ass TVs, and shitty cars. Fish, you are an idealistic idiot.

Anonymous said...

KF, you are right, many times people who seek out help from nonprofits get the message and succeed. And in this case, it is private money... for now. The problem with this particular social experiment for Universal Basic Income is that it is the canary in the coal mine. Guilty big tech titans and near-do-well foundations are testing this so we can weave it into the gov't funded social fabric of the welfare system. Free healthcare, free education, free housing and now free money. Once we pass the 51% tipping point on social welfare, there is no turning back. Even now there isn't enough wealth to pay for the wishlist of entitlements 'they' think we need. There never will be. Kudos to her for using this money for good. In the grand scheme of things, when this is rolled out to a wider audience the results will not be positive. As long as we reward poor life choices, slap criminals on the wrist and continue to dumb down our schools, there is no path to personal success, only a broader welfare class and second world living conditions for all but the uber rich.

Anonymous said...

Everyone, regardless of race or gender, deserves equal protection from the consequences of their own bad decisions just like these women.

Anonymous said...

@11:30
Why would someone deserve protection from poor choices they made? I'm not sure I follow that logic. Who is responsible for providing this "equal protection"protection"

Anonymous said...

11:30 said: "Everyone, regardless of race or gender, deserves equal protection from the consequences of their own bad decisions just like these women."

Welcome to the Nanny State where personal freedoms die.

Cynical Sam said...

10:42 AM - Exactly! This project is preordained to be "successful." Then the AOCs and Bernie Sanders from the beltway will make it law.

Pretty soon there will be more people taking free shit than people supporting the money tree.

Google - Venezuela to learn what the inevitable outcome would be.

Anonymous said...

I am looking forward to the coming Trump recession so I can read all of the foreclosure notices in the swanky Madison burbs.

Anonymous said...

UBI is the future unless you want mass starvation and civil unrest. The selfish baby boomers allowed the 1% to offshore the blue collar jobs and soon most white collar jobs will be replaced by AI

The Federal Feserve has been using witchcraft to give the US dollar any value for the last 50 of the 100 years of the bank's existence. So why care if they figure out a way to stabilize the economy so we can all afford to at least eat.

Anonymous said...

Seems to be a push to pump out stories on UBI

It might be nice that a little nonprofit in MS is highlighted in an article, but there is still an agenda behind this, and it is not good. I will bet you a dozen donuts that a PR firm is behind this as well making sure the press if fed a certain set of story points.

Anonymous said...

My mother is from Venezuela and I am in process of trying to get her to the US. I came and graduated college here on swimming scholarship and UBI is a awful idea. Venezuela is a good place to see the end result of it. Any college professor or student that pushes this is applied by what America offers and is blind to reality of this program. It's ignorantance on there part. You don't know what you don't know.

Anonymous said...

Another note from the article. It complains that the minimum wage is $7.50 in Mississippi. There wasn't any mention or correlation with the chicken plant paying illegals $12 hr when this person could only find an $11 hr job.

LBJ's Erection Raises Coffin Lid.. said...

"Everyone, regardless of race or gender, deserves equal protection from the consequences of their own bad decisions just like these women."

Thanks, Bernie.

So, Kingfish, in the fine fashion of Miz Clinton, sez, "What difference does it make" since it's so-called private money. It makes a difference because it's a well publicized social experiment in the country where we live. That's what difference it makes.

Social experiments are designed and implemented with one goal in mind: Making them standard practice and enacted as law. The first thing these nabobs will do, once we turn our government over to democrats, is testify before congress prior to a vote to push this forward as a taxpayer national project. LBJ would love it.



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