Michael Lissack in trouble, as it often is, she may earn even less. If we want unskilled single mothers to take paid jobs instead of caring for their children, we will have to make up the difference between what they can earn and what they need to make ends meet. Charities that purport to represent poor people abuse the public trust in an endless quest for larger budgets, career advancements and political power. An entire mythology about welfare and the people on it has been developed and strengthened to reinforce stereotypes that justify the ex- penditures of billions of tax dollars and preserve the status quo. Politicians and policy makers help to prop up the charities by dishing out government contracts and supportive legislation in covert quid pro quo arrangements. Still, at some point they must adapt to the challenge of structural changes in the economy that increase the proportion of people estranged from a dwin- dling job market, and accept that no amount of social workers can alter those dynamics or distribute essential goods to people who need them. The only way to reverse the trend of the increasing povertization, partic- ularly of poor families, is to increase their economic security through some form of guaranteed income. The money's all there-it's just being spent on an army of social welfare professionals whose interests are protected by the elected officials they help put into office and by the press that naively reports on all of it at face value. Such a program would replace dozens of current programs that may not do what we want them to do-alleviate or eliminate poverty. For instance, AFDC would be eliminated, so would food stamps and SSI (Supplemental Security Income to needy aged and disabled people), the conveniently named income tax credit would be subsumed, virtually all the feeding programs and the tax expenditures related to the donation boondoggle could go, and so on. The higher the guarantee is set, the more programs would be eliminated. The more programs eliminated, the more redundant bureaucracies that flow from each would go, including some of those dependent on the contracting-out process. The more programs that are replaced with a guar- anteed income, the lower the cost. It is even likely that at some point social security itself would be subsumed. According to Allan Sheahen author of
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