Providing Direct Income and Employment Assistance to Existing Poor People

Abstract

HE President's National Advisory Commission on Rural Poverty made two general types of recommendations: (1) those intended to alter the conditions creating and perpetuating poverty, and (2) those to provide direct income, employment, and other assistance to existing poor people. I shall address my remarks to those recommended policies and programs providing direct income and employment assistance to existing poor people. More specifically, I shall try to express the philosophy and reasoning of the commission underlying their recommendations for increasing employment of the existing poor, in both public and private sectors, and for transferring income, or income in kind, to those not expected to participate in the labor force sufficiently to attain socially acceptable levels of living. A basic belief of the commission was that people attach self-respect, dignity, and pride to gaining a livelihood through productive and meaningful employment. Because of this belief, the commission stressed policies and programs with promise of reducing poverty through increased employment of the existing poor in private sectors and, as a last resort, in the public sector. To maximize employment of the poor in private sectors, the commission's recommendations stressed (1) greater attention to effects of national monetary and fiscal policies upon the rate of unemployment-nationally, regionally, and by sectors, (2) a more effective national manpower policy, including an expansion and coordination of manpower training, mobility assistance, and job placement services, and (3) elimination of such institutional barriers to individual employment opportunities as racial discrimination.