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  • Hello, I’m Craig and this is Crash Course Government & Politics and today were going to talk about social policy.

  • I have a lot of social policies, which include not staying out past 3AM on weeknights,

  • and avoiding social gatherings where velveeta sausage cheese dip is served.

  • Both of these are pretty loosely enforced, though.

  • Actually, were talking about government social policy, which deals with things like

  • social security, education, and healthcare.

  • And hopefully velveeta sausage cheese dip. Butprobably not.

  • [Theme Music]

  • In talking about policy, it’s really hard to separate social policy or foreign policy

  • from economic policy, primarily because theyre all paid for with money. One way to distinguish

  • between them is to look at a policy’s goals.

  • Social policy has a number of goals, none of which is the outright promotion of social-ism.

  • Glad that’s out of the way and no one is going to comment on it at all in the comments. Peace on Earth.

  • In America, social policy consists of programs that seek to do at least three things.

  • Some social programs protect against risk and insecurity, like from job loss, health problems or disability.

  • Other social programs seek to promote equal opportunity.

  • Finally, some social programs attempt to assist the poor. Of these three goals, there’s

  • general agreement that promoting equal opportunity is a good thing, less agreement on whether

  • the government should protect us from risk, and widespread skepticism about helping the poor.

  • Americans traditionally haven’t cared much for social policy, and part of the reason

  • for this has to do with Americansstrong faith in individualism that is suspicious of government action,

  • and generally favors private charity and pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps self-reliance.

  • I don’t think I’ve ever worn bootstraps, Stan. Does that make me a true American?

  • As you might have guessed, the history of the American government social policy pretty

  • much starts, as most government programs do, with the New Deal.

  • Prior to the 1930s there were some attempts on the state level to protect workers and

  • limit exploitation, but often these were struck down by the courts, and the Federal government’s

  • role in protecting people from risk was minimal.

  • The government did provide pensions to veteranswidows, but except for a relatively brief

  • period after the Civil War, the numbers of pension recipients were never very large.

  • The Great Depression changed the way that Americans came to view their government, and

  • also modified how many of them felt about poverty. The suffering caused by the Depression

  • was so great and so widespread that many Americans came to feel that it was part of

  • the government’s job to do something about it.

  • Private charities, which had been the primary way that Americans had helped the poor before

  • the Depression, could not handle the numbers of needy people. In addition, not all of these

  • people could be considered to have become poor due to their own personal failings.

  • The Great Depression helped solidify the idea that people could sometimes be victims of

  • economic forces beyond their control, and that it was the government’s duty to help them.

  • Basically, the Great Depression changed people’s question fromif the government

  • should helptohow should the government help?”

  • The answer to that question came in the form of the New Deal. Youve probably heard about

  • the New Deal; it’s a big deal. But weve only got 12 minutes, so were going to focus

  • on two specific programs: Social Security and Aid to Families with Dependent Children, or AFDC.

  • And if you judge by public opinion polls -- and who doesn’t -- then Social Security is one

  • of the most successful New Deal programs ever. Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.

  • Started in 1935, the Social Security Act was a reaction to the fact that many elderly people

  • in the U.S. were poor, largely because they had no work, little savings, and no pensions.

  • Social Security provided monthly payments to people over age 65, and while no one was

  • getting rich, it was enough money to prevent people from falling into abject poverty.

  • A couple of things about Social Security. First, it’s not a savings program; you pay

  • into it when you are working but that money doesn’t go into an account for you to access when you retire.

  • So how does it work? Well, when you are working and on a payroll, taxes are deducted from

  • your wages and the amount is matched by your employers. The total amount that gets taken

  • out is 7.65% with 6.2% going to Social Security and the other 1.45% going to Medicare, which

  • provides health coverage for older people. This money goes into a pot, which is then

  • paid out to people over the age of 65. In other words, today’s workers are paying today’s older Americans.

  • The benefits are indexed, which means that they go up with inflation.

  • This program redistributes wealth from younger working people to older retired people. Because

  • the more you make, the more you pay -- at least up to a point because there’s a cap

  • on the amount of your salary that’s subject to the payroll taxSocial Security also

  • redistributes wealth from richer people to poorer ones.

  • In general, Americans are suspicious of programs that redistribute wealth, but Social Security

  • is very popular with both liberals and conservatives. Conservatives tend to like it because it is

  • funded by a regressive payroll tax that phases out at higher incomes, rather than a more

  • progressive one that would hit high earners harder. Liberals like it because it provides

  • automatic benefits for the elderly.

  • Thanks, Thought Bubble. Whether Social Security is in crisis depends a lot on what numbers

  • you look at and whether you believe that there are political solutions to potential problems.

  • The number of people receiving benefits is risingapproximately 50 million Americans

  • receive Social Security and that number is increasing as baby boomers get olderand

  • the number of people paying into it is falling.

  • Eventually, if these trends continue, there will come a time when there might not be enough

  • money paid in to Social Security to pay out benefits to those who qualify.

  • This shouldn’t be an issue since Social Security spending is controlled by Congressional

  • legislation, and they can always raise the payroll tax or raise the benefit age above 65.

  • Should be easy. Uncontroversial.

  • Since older people tend to vote, there’s a strong incentive for Congress to fix any problems and

  • keep the benefits coming. Also, it would be a national embarrassment for Congress to let it go bankrupt.

  • Medicare, which is also paid for by payroll taxes, is probably in more trouble, partly

  • because of the same demographics that are putting pressure on Social Security, but mainly

  • because of rising medical costs which Medicare can only do so much to control.

  • Medicare is a third party payer for its medical benefits, it doesn’t actually provide doctors

  • or medicine or stuff that makes people healthy. Since it does cover more than 45 million Americans,

  • Medicare has some leverage over costs, but, at least until recently, those costs have been rising rapdily.

  • Social Security is generally popular, but I’ll tell you what was unpopular: Aid to Families with Dependent Children.

  • In fact, it was so unpopular that we don’t even have it anymore!

  • Like imagine this eagle as the AFDC (punches eagle)... metaphor.

  • AFDC is what Americans tend to think of when we talk aboutwelfare.” It was a system

  • that paid benefits to women with children and the amount of the payments went up or

  • down depending on how many children you had.

  • AFDC was what is called a non-contributory program, which means what it sounds like:

  • you didn’t need to have contributed through taxes to be eligible or to receive benefits.

  • There are still some non-contributory social welfare programs, most notably free school

  • lunches, federal housing assistance programs, and supplemental nutrition assistance program,

  • also known as SNAP or food stamps.

  • Another is the successor to AFDC, Temporary Aid to Needy Families, or T.A.N.F. or TANF.

  • In the 1980’s, conservatives argued that these AFDC checks created dependency or at

  • the very least an incentive to not work, and increasing welfare payments were pointed to

  • as a criticism of liberalism in general.

  • But conservatives weren’t able to reform welfare in the 80’s, because even though

  • a majority of Americans didn’t like it, passing laws is difficult, especially when Congress is hostile to you.

  • It took a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, to push welfare reform through Congress, which

  • in 1996 passed the Personal Responsibility and Opportunity Reconciliation Act,

  • better known as the 1996 Welfare Reform Act.

  • This law got rid of Aid to Families with Dependent Children and replaced it with Temporary Aid

  • to Needy Families, which emphasized that any aid to needy families was going to be TEMPORARY,

  • by putting that as the first word in its title.

  • There are now work restriction that recipients must meet in order to get benefits, and there

  • are time restrictions. You can only receive benefits for two years in a row and five years total.

  • All of this was supposed to encourage people to get off welfare, and as the name

  • of the law tells us, exercise greater personal responsibility.

  • So did it work? It kind of worked. The number of people receiving welfare did decrease and

  • more people did look for and find work.

  • On the other hand, the law didn’t reduce poverty, although to be fair that wasn’t

  • what it was supposed to do -- it was supposed to reduce welfare.

  • Also, during economic downturns as in 2001 and 2009, welfare caseloads rose again, suggesting

  • that the work that people did find might not be such a stable solution to relieving poverty.

  • So this episode has focused mainly on the more controversial aspects of social policy,

  • those that involve redistribution of wealth from richer to poor Americans, and I’m sure

  • all of you commenters are fine with that.

  • Actually, probably not. For a lot of reasons, some economic, but many cultural, Americans

  • have generally been suspicious of these redistributive programs.

  • Remember that I said one goal of social policy, one that is not very controversial, is increasing opportunity.

  • And for most of us, the key to increasing opportunity is education. Which is what were doing right here!

  • Education is one social policy that almost everyone agrees on, under the theory that

  • if everyone is educated they will be able to find good, high paying jobs that will enable

  • them to achieve greater economic stability and mitigate the risks in their own lives

  • without the government having to do it for them.

  • Whether it works or not, and just how much the government should be involved, are questions

  • that you will have to think about and argue over with your friends and families and teachers

  • and teacher’s teachers and teacher’s grandmas and the guy at McDonaldsmaybe the guy standing

  • next to you at the Velveeta sausage cheese dip platter.

  • But it’s important to remember that social policy isn’t just redistribution of wealth

  • or income, it’s also education and programs that help people who really can’t help themselves.

  • Thanks for watching. See you next time.

  • Crash Course Government and Politics is produced in association with PBS Digital Studios. Support

  • for Crash Course: U.S. Government comes from Voqal. Voqal supports nonprofits that use

  • technology and media to advance social equity. Learn more about their mission and initiatives at Voqal.org.

  • Crash Course was made with the help of all these Velveeta sausage cheese dips. Thanks for watching.

Hello, I’m Craig and this is Crash Course Government & Politics and today were going to talk about social policy.

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