Name: The Complete Moderate's Guide to Welfare
Uploaded: 2019-01-22T16:32:25.000Z
Duration: 29 min 49 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Monopoly is a classic board game where families
sit around to argue and play out their own

little simulation of free market capitalism.

Adverbs of degree

There is no better system to teach kids about
the joys of paying taxes and rent, really.

But in Monopoly, unless you bend the rules
to keep the game going, when someone loses

If enough people go bankrupt and aren't
allowed back into the game, eventually, they

So let's examine how America has bent the
rules in order to keep as many people as possible

This video is brought to you by Skillshare.

The problem with wanting to discuss welfare
in America is defining welfare.

There is no official government definition
of welfare and in fact, there is no program

If you were to get seven different people
into a room, you would have seven different

interpretations of what counts as welfare.

I know this… because I tried on Twitter.

So for the purposes of this video, we're
going to go with the programs that most everyone

Where the government is giving you monetary
assistance based on your income or inability

This can either be direct, or through a subsidy,
or through free or discounted services.

So does using public roads and relying on
the police for protection count?

Not really, while it is a “free” government
service, you're not getting monetary assistance

for that and you get it regardless of your
income.

Does having a federally-backed mortgage or
student loan count?

Well, that's a little foggy, the government
is financially insuring your loan, but not

to you directly, it's mostly just insurance
for the banks.

But when we start talking about tax credits,
the fog starts to lift.

A tax credit reduces the amount of taxes you
owe after taking your deductions and brackets

Taxes in the United States are incredibly
complex, and someone should definitely make

And there are two refundable tax credits you
can claim based solely on your income level

Meaning that if you owe a negative amount
of federal income tax at the end of the year,

the government will give you extra money on
top of getting back everything that was withheld.

The Earned Income Tax Credit, or just EIC,
was designed to encourage working because

you can only get it by… earning income.

Many analysts in both political parties believe
that it helps lift people out of poverty.

The credit increases with the more you make
and eventually decreases with the even more

you make, you only get it up to a certain
income level.

I wish I could tell you what that level is
or what the average person gets, but it changes

What I can tell you is that this credit is
claimed on 27 million tax returns and cost

the government 65 billion dollars in 2017.

Both in lost tax revenue and in having to
pay out extra.

The Earned Income Credit also increases with
your family size, which likewise entitles

One thousand dollars for every child you have,
I guess the government thinks that's enough

The Child Tax Credit is claimed by 35 million
families and cost the government 52 billion

These two tax credits combined are why almost
half of Americans pay no federal income tax…

Romney was actually right when he said that.

But almost nobody who claims these credits
would classify it as welfare – even though

it fits our definition of direct monetary
assistance based on income.

Probably because there's a weird stigma
about having received welfare and nobody wants

Take education for example, up through high
school it's free for everyone, regardless

But higher education is a different story.

We've already ruled out student loans, but
if you filled out a FAFSA, you very likely

This is monetary assistance based on income.

It's not direct since it goes to the school
rather than to you, but it is free education

assistance that you never have to pay back.

You can receive up to $5920 per academic year
for up to six years.

Seven million Americans received the Pell
Grant last academic year, costing the federal

But these are still gray forms of welfare
that not everyone would agree counts as welfare.

So let's switch gears and talk about the
more black and white forms of welfare… like

the Obamaphone from the 2012 election, do
you remember that?

Yes, everybody in Cleveland if you a minority
got an Obamaphone, keep Obama in president,

The program is actually called Lifeline, it's
administered by the FCC and provides discounted

telephone service to low-income households.

And it was actually started in 1985 by Ronald
Reagan.

It used to only provide landline phones but
has since moved on to cell phones and recently

Because c'mon, it's 2019 and nobody uses
a landline anymore – not even your grandma.

It's not a free phone though, it's a discounted
service where the FCC only pays $9.25 a month

You actually help pay for it with that Universal
Service Fund tax on your bill.

10.7 million households are part of the program
and it costs the government 1.3 billion dollars

a year… this is by far the smallest program
I'm going to talk about today.

She actually explains how you qualify in that
clip…

You sign up, if you on food stamps, you on
social security, you got low income, you disability.

Your income must be at or below 135% of the
Federal Poverty Line or you have to participate

in another federal financial assistance program.

And most of those other federal financial
assistance programs are what we would call

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or
TANF, is a cash assistance program that fits

It's also sometimes referred to as state-sponsored
child support.

Its main purpose is to serve as a financial
safety net, provide job opportunities, promote

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The Complete Moderate's Guide to Welfare

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