Current Events > AOC's plan to tackle poverty is kinda cool but also kinda small potatoes imo

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/us/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-poverty.html

I guess my tl;dr is that it reflects her background and lived experiences in NY, meaning it is very much geared towards helping the working poor and middle class and not so much targeted at people in desperate poverty

On Wednesday, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez hopes to do for the nations poor what she has done with health care and climate politics with the unveiling of an ambitious anti-poverty package that, among other things, would cap annual rent increases, ensure full access to social welfare programs for people with convictions and undocumented immigrants, pressure federal contractors to offer better wages and benefits, and update official poverty measurements by taking into account geographic cost-of-living variations and access to health insurance, child care, and new necessities such as internet access.

Like I think a full accounting of poverty that raises the poverty threshold is great, but it's definitely a move that disproportionately helps larger metro areas and particularly the kind of on paper middle class that struggles with high costs of living even though if you looked at their income from a national level they wouldn't be considered poor

Not saying that's bad but it's a bit weird to gear your anti-poverty proposal to that group. Again jmo

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Balrog0 posted...

would cap annual rent increases

and there it is

yeah and that is very obviously a move that only or largely benefits people in high cost metro areas (setting aside whether you think rent caps are good, which I don't, especially as an anti-poverty policy when you could just give poor people more money instead)

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Providing undocumented immigrants with access to social welfare programs sounds like a policy that would be dead in the water considering the current political climate.
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Kombucha posted...

Providing undocumented immigrants with access to social welfare programs sounds like a policy that would be dead in the water considering the current political climate.

polling-wise, I think letting undocumented immigrants access public benefits might be less popular than giving undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship, which is kind of weird

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What's the thought process behind capping rent increases?

Having lived in a place that changed from small town to major tourist destination, I don't see the logic. If we weren't allowed to increase rent then everyone and their mom would want to move there and overcrowding would be a major issue. Rent is extremely high in extremely desirable places

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ensure full access to social welfare programs for people with convictions and undocumented immigrants

Yeah, she can fuck off. People need to stop coming here illegally.

AOC is a dumb fuck who wants open borders and the complete disbursal of our wealth as a nation to anyone who can come here. I won't tolerate this and if she pushes it she needs to be deemed a threat to national security.
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Colorahdo posted...

What's the thought process behind capping rent increases?

There's no thought process behind populism. Lower rents sound good, what can go wrong?

Colorahdo posted...

What's the thought process behind capping rent increases?

It's a common populist rallying cry. Economists across the political spectrum agree that rent control hurts far more than it helps, but people love being promised limited rent increases.
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Colorahdo posted...

What's the thought process behind capping rent increases?

The strange delusion that a de jure ceiling on rent increases won't instantly also become the de facto floor, while the quantity of available units erodes in favor of condos and luxury apartments.

Kombucha posted...

Providing undocumented immigrants with access to social welfare programs sounds like a policy that would be dead in the water considering the current political climate.

Yea, but look at the Green New Deal. AOC doesn't propose things that could actually pass. She picks a popular topic and bundles together a bunch of sweeping demands before moving on to the next big thing to keep herself in the news. She's incredibly media savvy in that regard, because she's never forced to actually see through any of her proposals. She just dumps them and runs. At best, her goal is to shift the overton window, at worst she's just doing it for attention. Either way, I don't think the purpose of her proposals is to actually become law.
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Balrog0 posted...

Like I think a full accounting of poverty that raises the poverty threshold is great, but it's definitely a move that disproportionately helps larger metro areas and particularly the kind of on paper middle class that struggles with high costs of living even though if you looked at their income from a national level they wouldn't be considered poor

at the end of the day AOC is a rep for a specific district in the bronx and this anti-poverty bill seems geared towards that specific region

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Romulox28 posted...

at the end of the day AOC is a rep for a specific district in the bronx and this anti-poverty bill seems geared towards that specific region

I concur

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shockthemonkey posted...

Yeah this plan sounds far too aimed at helping people with normal incomes in high cost areas rather than a full poverty approach.

Wouldve been nice to see her team up with a rural senator for this.

Are there any rural senators who care about this kind of thing though? Like, how do we define rural, even? Because I don't think Jon Tester is for ambitious government programs, and Joe Manchin certainly isn't, and that's it for Democratic Senators from states that are traditionally considered "rural".

This seems primarily aimed to drive discussions about how we define poverty and how incredibly outdated the federal poverty line is. She knows nothing at all can pass Congress right now, but it's important to give people ideas of what good things *could* pass in an actual social democratic Congress(which AOC is actively working to make a reality by backing efforts to go after conservative Democrats).

Frankly I think we need zero taxes on people making six figures or less, and at least 50% income taxes on corporations and 1%ers. Also an 8% wealth tax minimum on the uber rich. With all that money we could easily eliminate poverty in a generation or two.


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ElatedVenusaur posted...

Are there any rural senators who care about this kind of thing though? Like, how do we define rural, even? Because I don't think Jon Tester is for ambitious government programs, and Joe Manchin certainly isn't, and that's it for Democratic Senators from states that are traditionally considered "rural".

yeah it's a weird conversation anyway

like Vermont is more rural than West Virginia but no one calls Sanders of Leahy rural senators or w/e


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friendbuddypal posted...

Frankly I think we need zero taxes on people making six figures or less, and at least 50% income taxes on corporations and 1%ers.

When the takers outnumber the makers, any given society either collapses fairly quickly, or gets tyrannical as hell and eventually collapses.

Also an 8% wealth tax minimum on the uber rich. With all that money we could easily eliminate poverty in a generation or two.

And then that third generation starves because their grandparents have already eaten the rich.

ElatedVenusaur posted...

which AOC is actively working to make a reality by backing efforts to go after conservative Democrats

who is she going after btw?

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are we just assuming that hes hypno or we know for sure? they type nothing alike
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Questionmarktarius posted...

When the takers outnumber the makers, any given society either collapses fairly quickly, or gets tyrannical as hell and eventually collapses.

Yikes, so marginalized folk and the middle class who would benefit from this system are "takers" now?
[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

I'm not Hypno and my political aspirations are genuine. Feel free to try and refute me instead of deflecting.


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friendbuddypal posted...

Yikes, so marginalized folk and the middle class who would benefit from this system are "takers" now?

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/88664-when-the-people-find-that-they-can-vote-themselves-money

Balrog0 posted...

ElatedVenusaur posted...

which AOC is actively working to make a reality by backing efforts to go after conservative Democrats

who is she going after btw?

She's already endorsed Jessica Cisneros and Marie Newman, who are challenging Harry Cuellar and Dan Lipiniski, respectively.
Cuellar has taken more money from the fossil fuel industry than any other Democratic representative and has an "A" rating from the NRA.
Dan Lipinski is anti-abortion and generally conservative.

They're both endorsed by Justice Democrats, the same organization which initially supported her.

no i remember how friendbuddy used to post also. syntactically he didnt seem like hypno to me but i know people have been calling him hypno for a long time now so i was curious
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ElatedVenusaur posted...

Dan Lipinski is anti-abortion and generally conservative.

I hate this guy. Good for her

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