Suggested Answers to $2.00/Day Quiz No. 1 - Less Than $2.00/person/day OF CASH

[johnkarls]

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Question 1

Was the “Aid To Families With Dependent Children” Program (AFDC) enacted in 1935 as a cornerstone of FDR’s “New Deal”?

Answer 1

Yes.

Question 2

Did Bill Clinton win the 1992 Presidential Election with 43.0% of the popular vote by campaigning “against welfare as we know it”?

Answer 2

Yes, Bill Clinton only won 43.0% of the popular vote (George H.W. Bush 37.4%, Ross Perot 18.9% challenging President Bush from the right, others 0.7%).

And yes, Bill Clinton campaigned in 1992 “against welfare as we know it.”

Question 3

Was Bill Clinton able to win re-election in 1996 with 49.2% of the popular vote by campaigning on the fact that he had signed the repeal of the AFDC on 8/22/1996 just before the Democratic Party Nominating Convention?

Answer 3

Yes.

Question 4

Did Bill Clinton’s 8/22/1996 repeal of AFDC include a new “Temporary Assistance for Needy Families” Program (TANF) which (A) put a 60-month lifetime cap on benefits, (B) required recipients to find employment within 24 months, and (C) put administration of TANF in the hands of each state, EACH OF WHICH WAS GIVEN DISCRETION TO PAY NO BENEFITS WHATSOEVER!!!???

Answer 4

Yes.

Question 5

Did Bill Clinton repeal AFDC on 8/22/1996 despite a 256-170 vote in the U.S. House of Representatives which would have been more than sufficient to sustain a veto since a veto-override requires a 2/3 vote of each House of Congress?

Answer 5

Incredibly!!!

Question 6

Did our author, Sociology Prof. Kathryn Edin, write her first book on how single mothers make ends meet after touring the country for 6 years BEFORE Bill Clinton’s abolition of AFDC? And did she find that people on welfare generally received about $500/month?

Answer 6

Yes – Yes.

Question 7

Was our author surprised when she led a research team beginning in 2010 to investigate the effect of the AFDC repeal to find that there had been a significant increase since 1996 in the number of households living on less than $2.00 per person per day?

Answer 7

Yes.

Question 8

Are such “households” essentially homeless unless they have a housing subsidy of some kind (only approximately 20% of them do) -- otherwise “couch surfing” with friends/relatives, in a homeless shelter or out on the street?

Answer 8

Yes.

Question 9

Did our author then recruit as a co-author for our focus book, Prof. H. Luke Shaefer, a U/Michigan expert on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation, who was a visiting Prof. at Harvard while our author was also a visiting Prof. at Harvard?

Answer 9

Yes.

Question 10

Did Prof. Shaefer’s analysis of the Census Bureau statistics based on interviews with tens of thousands of American households, show that between the abolition of AFDC in 1996 and 2011 the number of families living in $2/person/day poverty HAD MORE THAN DOUBLED, TO 1.5 MILLION HOUSHOLDS???

Answer 10

Yes.

Question 11

DID THESE HOUSEHOLDS INCLUDE 3 MILLION CHILDREN!!!???

Answer 11

YES – TO THE SHAME OF THE NATION!!!

Question 12

Did Edin and Shaefer then begin ethnographic studies across the country that showed the primary reason for such extreme poverty is the “perilous world of low-wage work” that is very sparse compared to the number of people living in extreme poverty, often sporadic, and often effectively out of reach for someone who doesn’t own a cell phone?

Answer 12

Yes.

And for all the “wise acres” who have questioned this question, ethnographic studies of course focus on the ethnic makeup of the extreme poor.

So, of course, the findings regarding the primary reason for extreme poverty were A BY-PRODUCT of the ethnographic studies.

Though this elaboration for the “wise acres” is not meant as critical since it is gratifying that so many of the 150 recipients of our weekly e-mails actually read the short quizzes and other materials that are attached to the e-mails.

Question 13

Do many of the states that have NOT abolished entirely TANF payments to the poor, discourage applicants by requiring weeks of applying for jobs before qualifying for TANF, by requiring documents that the poor cannot find or do not know how to get, by understaffing welfare offices so that lines become prohibitively long, and by simply turning down applications with no explanation?

Answer 13

Unfortunately!!!

Question 14

Because of TANF’s requirement to find work, does high unemployment (i.e., low job availability) often force single mothers to sell their blood plasma to hospitals, scavenge for cans and bottles in trash barrels, and/or sell sex???

Answer 14

Unfortunately!!!

Question 15

Since we always hear that child-care expenses are so prohibitive, has anybody given any thought to providing training for extreme-poverty mothers so that at least some of them can provide qualified day-care for both their own children and the children of other extreme-poverty mothers?

Answer 15

This question was posed because it seems so obvious.

However, Yours Truly does not know the answer and does not have the time to “chase that rabbit.”

Perhaps a Good Samaritan among our readers can research this Q and report back.

Question 16

Did Prof. Edin, who has a Christian religious background, find that most academics in the field view Christians as NOT ONLY FAILING “to love their neighbors as themselves” BUT ACTUALLY as bigots who hate the poor??? Is that view correct???

Answer 16

Yes, our author found/finds that most academics view Christians as hypocrites for refusing to follow the SECOND of Christ’s TWO Commandments for “inheriting eternal live”!!!

Re whether virtually all Christians are hypocrites regarding the SECOND of Christ’s TWO Commandments, what do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 17

What is Zakat?

Answer 17

As we have studied many times in the past, Islam is based on the Judeo-Christian tradition. Indeed, Allah is the Arabic word for the God of Abraham and Moses.

[Islam only recognizes Christ as a prophet while recognizing Mohammad as Allah’s most-important prophet.]

Yours Truly has always been struck by the difference in caring for the poor between Judaism and Islam, on the one hand, and Christianity, on the other.

Jewish law has included “tithing” (or giving 10% of your income) to the poor since ancient times. And Orthodox Jews, at least, still follow this practice.

Christ, on the other hand, preached almost constantly about the poor but never proclaimed a percentage, per se, of one’s income or wealth that should be given to the poor.

Instead, as we have studied on numerous occasions, Christ proclaimed that there are only TWO Commandments for “inheriting eternal life” [vs. the 613 laws of Judaism of which the “Ten Commandments” are a small part – causing many of my Jewish friends to derisively call Roman Catholicism’s emphasis of the Ten Commandments as "Judaism Lite” and causing many of my Protestant friends to call Roman Catholicism’s preaching the Ten Commandments as HERESY because it is so easy to obey the Ten Commandments while violating the Second of Christ’s TWO Commandments (for example, it is very easy to “honor your father and mother” without “loving them as yourself”!!!)].

And as we have studied on numerous occasions, truly “loving your neighbor as yourself” would require you to give away all of your income and wealth to the “poorest Bangladeshi” which is why so many Christian religious orders require a Vow of Poverty.

Islam restores the traditional Judaic tithe of giving only 10% to the poor.

And in all of Yours Truly’s work in the oil industry, he was amazed that Islamic countries often use their equivalent of the I.R.S. to collect the tithe, or a substantial portion of it.

For example, the Saudi Arabian I.R.S. is called D.Z.I.T. (Department of Zakat and Income Tax).

Zakat is the Arabic word for the “tithe” required by Islamic Law.

And the Saudi Arab D.Z.I.T. collects the 10% Zakat from all Muslims in Saudi Arabia.

Perhaps we should discuss whether more could be raised for America’s poor by imposing a 10% tax for that purpose, rather than relying on Christians to “love their neighbors as themselves”!!!

[johnkarls]

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