There was this big shift in assistance from poor people who weren't working to poor people who were working. By 2019, if you were a full-time worker at the minimum wage and you had two kids, you could get more than $8,000 a year from the two programs combined. That's more than three times what it was in 1993. With Food Stamps, they made it easier to get the benefits to which people were entitled.
The high poverty rate among children was long seen as an enduring fact of American life. But a recent analysis has shown that the number of young people growing up poor has fallen dramatically in the past few decades.
The reasons for the improvement are complicated, but they have their roots in a network of programs and support shaped by years of political conflict and compromise.
Guest: Jason DeParle, a senior writer at The New York Times and a frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine.
Background reading:
- Child poverty in the United States has fallen 59 percent since 1993, a new analysis showed.
- Few states have experienced larger declines in child poverty than West Virginia. One family’s story illustrates the real-life impact that an expanded safety net has provided to millions across America.
For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.