APPROACHES TO POVERTY.

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    • Abstract:
      The current public concern with poverty in the midst of affluence is an inescapable challenge to public administrators. But troublesome questions arise as roadblocks to response. The incidence of dependency has been rising in the aid for families with dependent children category, while other categories have been declining in proportion to the potentially eligible population groups. This increase in AFDC, moreover, is unevenly distributed, with the highest caseloads occurring in the nonwhite urban concentrations. With employment and economic activity relatively high, a sort of mass dependency has developed. Public leadership has not really involved itself in the problem. Other issues take precedence, leaving public assistance with relatively low visibility. Federal issues are mainly centered around the financial contribution, while state and local issues are regarded as administrative. Major proposals for improving the public assistance would, in the first instance, enlarge the dependent group rather than transform the system itself. A simplification of case inquiry to a concern solely with the presence of need and then providing assistance in a framework of national minimums would substantially increase caseloads. So also would the establishment of welfare as a right, a new form of property, legally enforceable on the part of those defined as poor.