The dumbing down of America continues

Want to be paid $300 for doing well on a school test, or $200 for visiting the doctor? You can be – if you’re poor and live in NYC:

NEW YORK — Poor residents will be rewarded for good behavior — like $300 for doing well on school tests, $150 for holding a job and $200 for visiting the doctor — under an experimental anti-poverty program that city officials detailed Monday.

The rewards have been used in other countries, including Brazil and Mexico, and have drawn widespread praise for changing behavior among the poor. Mayor Michael Bloomberg traveled to Mexico this spring to study the healthy lifestyle payments, also known as conditional cash transfers.

In New York, the two-year pilot program with about 14,000 participants will use private funds Bloomberg has raised because he did not want to spend government money on something that is highly experimental. More than $43 million has been raised toward the $53 million goal, Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs said.

The theory behind cash rewards is that poor people are trapped in a cycle of repeated setbacks that keep them from climbing out of poverty. A person who doesn’t keep up with his vaccinations and doctor’s visits, for example, may get sick more often and struggle to stay employed.

Bloomberg, a billionaire Republican, said he believes paying people in such circumstances to make good decisions could help break those patterns. The program “gives New Yorkers in poverty a financial incentive to look ahead and make decisions that will improve their prospects for the future,” he said in a statement.

Granted, this is coming from money Bloomberg has raised, but imagine if city ‘leaders’ view it as ‘successful.’ Then guess whose pockets the money will be coming from? Yours.

What about the motivational incentive to own your own home? Buy your own car? Pay your own way through life? Be a responsible adult and provider? If financial incentives are the only way to get the poor motivated in this country, then we’re in deeper trouble than originally thought.

Leslie says:

June 19, 2007 at 10:20 am

As long as they’re being paid with private funds, I’ve got no problem with this. It’s pure, basic stimulus/response behavior.

Go through the maze, get food. Study for the test, get money.

Ding!

I hope the mayor succeeds, but I have my doubts.

PCD says:

June 19, 2007 at 10:55 am

Leslie,

It won’t stay just private funds. Democrats have been trying to do this kind of thing starting with the New Deal.

Tom TB says:

June 19, 2007 at 1:25 pm

The New Deal and the Great Society under LBJ.You can’t just improve public education by throwing more money at it, it’s been tried before.

June 19, 2007 at 8:45 pm

To PCD and Tom TB

You make good points. I agree: There is the danger that taxpayer money could be used if this succeeds, and I don’t believe in throwing more money at education.

But: this is nothing like previous attempts. Here, people are being rewarded for specific goals rather than simply having it doled out to them as “entitlements.”

Anyhow, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Thanks for your thoughts.

Mrs_Deb says:

June 19, 2007 at 9:15 pm

From painful personal experience, I’m going to say it’s unlikely to work. We’re expecting them to actually follow through and perform some sort of action to get the funds. As an employer of many people at this socio-economic level, I’m here to tell you that there’s always an excuse.

* I wanted to go to the doctor, but couldn’t get a ride. I should get the money anyway.

* I tried to hold down a job, but I couldn’t come to work and my boss fired me. I should get the money anyway.

* I tried to do well on the test, but it was culturally biased, so I should get the money anyway.

Here’s the issue:

““It just reinforces the impression that if everybody would just work hard enough and change their personal behavior we could solve poverty in this country, and that’s not reflected in the facts,” said Margy Waller, co-founder of Inclusion, a research and policy group in Washington.”

Not reflected in the facts? Indeed it is. It’s the poor choices that many people make – over and over – that condemn them to a life behind the eight ball. When you smoke, have HBO, a cell phone, DSL, and $100 sneakers, but not enough money for rent, that’s a poor choice. When you get pregnant in high school and drop out, that’s a poor choice. When you drink like a fish on a weeknight and call in sick the next day, that’s a poor choice.

I could go on and on. Sorry.

NC Cop says:

June 19, 2007 at 9:29 pm

Never be sorry for telling the truth Mrs. Deb. I know exactly what you mean and I agree with you. I wish it weren’t true as well.