Policy Blog
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January 7, 2010
Pathways to Prosperity: Managing the Line
We have created an elaborate infrastructure around administering programs for the poor. Governmental and non-governmental institutions have been built up with the responsibility to manage the "line," not necessarily to move people out of poverty. This serves to legitimize existing systems whether or not we are getting the desired outcomes.
Indeed, in 2008 Minnesota counties spent $800 million administering programs for lower-income Minnesotans -- roughly the equivalent of nearly 11,000 jobs just in county administration. As William Easterly writes in his book The White Man's Burden, "The rich have markets, the poor have bureaucracy."
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Posted by Annie Levenson-Falk at January 7, 2010 9:47 AM