Confronting Poverty: Potential National and Community Responses

Since the War on Poverty was declared four decades ago, numerous programs have been implemented in an effort to eliminate, or at least reduce, poverty levels. Since these programs have not succeeded in making substantial inroads in reducing poverty, they have been considered to be a failure by many. This is certainly not completely the case. Many of the programs originally implemented, or in some cases expanded, in the 1960s, such as Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, Food Stamps and the Job Corps are still in operation today. The economic well-being of millions of people has been enhanced by these programs (Danziger et al. 1994). Many of these programs have been successful in meeting their stated goals. The proportion of the population in poverty among groups specifically targeted by these programs has been greatly reduced. For example, since Social Security payments were tied to inflation, most of the elderly have been lifted out of poverty (Burtless 1994), and poverty rates among the elderly are now lower than among working age people. There is no doubt that poverty in this country would be much worse without these programs.

In considering the future of national poverty programs, it should be remembered that the economic and social changes discussed earlier have made poverty reduction efforts much more difficult than in the past. These altered economic and social conditions must be considered if future programs are to be successful. Each of these economic and social changes represents structural changes in our society. It is essential that programs deal with the structural roots of poverty if they are to be successful. To a large extent, cultural values and attitudes are a consequence of structural circumstances. Four important structural changes will be mentioned here. First, economic restructuring, where millions of middle-income manufacturing jobs have been replaced by largely low-income service jobs means that many people with full-time employment are still living in or near poverty. Thus, implementing employment programs to lift people out of poverty will be problematic. The success of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 has been reduced because getting a job does not necessarily mean getting out of poverty (O'Connor 2001). Overcoming these employment obstacles will be extremely difficult simply because there are fewer middle income jobs and more low-income jobs available than in the past. Second, if future policies are to be effective, they must specifically target minority populations. There have been significant increases in minority populations in recent decades, and since minority poverty rates remain high, persons in poverty are much more likely to be minority than in the past. Third, the number of people living in single-parent families has greatly increased in recent decades, and as a result, the majority of families living in poverty at the present time are female-headed. This is of great concern because it is estimated that at least half of the current generation of children will spend at least part of their life between birth and age 18 living in a home with a single-mother (Garfinkel and McLanahan 1994). Thus, programs to strengthen families and to provide assistance to individuals living in single-parent families are paramount. Fourth, in the next few years, the Baby Boom generation will begin to reach retirement age. This means that the costs of maintaining programs to keep the elderly from poverty will increase dramatically.

Community leaders in nonmetropolitan areas are constrained by existing national and state programs as they attempt to implement local poverty reduction efforts. In many cases, nonmetro communities are also constrained by the fact that municipal budgets do not allow them to employ full-time professionals to seek grants and the funding of programs to assist communities in their efforts to increase incomes and reduce poverty. Despite these constraints, efforts must proceed. It should be remembered that successful poverty reduction programs must be based on changing problematic structures. For example, programs to provide more quality jobs or improve schools will generally provide better results than efforts to change attitudes.

The first path that should be explored by nonmetro community leaders is to improve the number and quality of employment opportunities available to local workers. The obstacles and opportunities faced in attempts to attract jobs and businesses vary greatly from community to community. For many communities these obstacles are significant. Historically, the most prominent sources of employment in most nonmetro communities have been agriculture and manufacturing. Employment opportunities in both of these industries are declining. Many nonmetro communities have been heavily dependent on a single industry, and when this industry declines the impacts are extensive. Further, the benefits of attracting service jobs may not be very great because of the low-pay associated with many service jobs. Even if efforts are made to attract service sector jobs, research is showing that some nonmetro communities have significant advantages over other nonmetro communities in attracting these jobs. Specifically, communities with natural amenity advantages are generally more successful in attracting service jobs than communities lacking these amenity advantages (Albrecht 2004).

There are opportunities to attract jobs that were not generally available to nonmetro communities in the past. Of prime significance are rapid developments in computers, the Internet, and other forms of information technology. With computers, information can now be stored, accessed, and transferred in ways almost unimaginable a few years ago. Further, this technology has become so cheap that it is available to large numbers of individuals and companies. Of major importance to nonmetropolitan communities is that the emergence of computers and information technology has greatly reduced the relevance of location (Brown and Swanson 2003; Falk et al. 2003). To a greater extent than at any time in the past, families and firms can establish their homes and places of business where they wish and still be connected to the necessary markets and customers. In the past, many individuals and firms were obligated to locate near metropolitan centers because these communities, by definition, had the advantage of being nearer to markets and larger numbers of customers. Now many of those who wish to can still be connected to the necessary markets and customers and at the same time enjoy the advantages of nonmetro living. Further, in the past, persons residing in nonmetro areas were generally required to live near where traditional resources (such as forests, fisheries or the soil, water and climate essential for agriculture) were available. This is no longer the case. Nonmetro communities now have the potential of attracting high quality jobs that were previously limited to metro communities (Albrecht 2004).

Finally, a key to any local community effort to increase economic well-being and reduce poverty is education. Local schools are an arena where community residents can have a direct and significant impact. The relationship between a quality education and economic security is much greater now than in the past. The economic structure transformations described earlier are resulting in the United States moving from a middle-class nation to a dualistic nation. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of high-income jobs, an increase in the number of low-income jobs, and a decline in the number of middle-income jobs. Virtually all of the high quality jobs require advanced education or specialized training. In the past, individuals lacking the advanced education or specialized training needed to attain a high-quality job, could generally obtain a middle-income jobs, often in the manufacturing sector. This is no longer the case. In the economy of today, individuals who fail to qualify for the high-quality jobs will often be relegated to one of the growing number of low-quality jobs. It is vital that local schools prepare their young people for this world.

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