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Combatiendo la pobreza en Estados Unidos

Jul 27, 2016 Laura Tyson , Lenny Mendonca

BERKELEY – De 2005 a 2014, el ingreso real de dos tercios de los hogares en 25 economías desarrolladas se mantuvo sin cambios, o incluso decayó. Sólo después de una intervención gubernamental muy agresiva en impuestos y transferencias algunos países lograron, por lo menos, que las familias no se vieran perjudicadas.

Esta experiencia conlleva lecciones para países como Estados Unidos, donde la desigualdad y la distribución de ingresos causan preocupación en vísperas de las elecciones presidenciales y parlamentarias de noviembre. ¿Qué puede aprender Estados Unidos de lo que funciona en otras partes?

Estados Unidos es un caso aparte a nivel global en lo que concierne a asociar gran parte de su red de seguridad social con el empleo. El gasto en previsión social promedia el 23% del PIB en Europa, pero apenas el 16% en Estados Unidos. Y Estados Unidos también está especialmente lejos del resto en lo que concierne a las familias: solamente otros tres países -Tonga, Surinam y Papúa Nueva Guinea- carecen de una política nacional para la licencia familiar paga.

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Laura Tyson

Writing for PS since 2012
108 Commentaries

Laura Tyson, a former chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration, is a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and a member of the Board of Advisers at Angeleno Group.

Lenny Mendonca

Writing for PS since 2014
44 Commentaries

Lenny Mendonca, Senior Partner Emeritus at McKinsey & Company, is a former chief economic and business adviser to Governor Gavin Newsom of California and chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

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Steve Hurst Jul 30, 2016

'From 2005 to 2014, the real income of two-thirds of households in 25 developed economies was flat or fell'

'Social-welfare spending averages 23% of GDP in Europe, but only 16% in the US'

Since the US is populated mainly by migrants, many from Europe it is doubtful there is some wild genetic advantage. Hence sooner or later US social-welfare spending will have to rise for social cohesion. As that will be fought over it should be interesting. Initatives like the one described are always welcome but probably insufficent to raise levels overall
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stephan Edwards Jul 30, 2016

Their will be many sound bytes, lots of speeches but in the end nothing will change. Most likely given the way jobs that pay a living wage are being exported or filled with cheap H1B's, it will get worse. Bluntly none of the people in a position to change things give enough of a damn to bother. That isn't going to change 1200 families out of how many who need help? The situation is not going to change for the most part because our "Beloved" congress believes if your poor you deserve it.
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Denis Drew Jul 28, 2016

So many detailed programs to deal with the symptoms -- when the core pathology would yield to one simple, easy to achieve cure:

[cut-and-paste]
As long as nobody else talks about re-unionization (as the beginning and the end of re-constituting the American dream) — nobody thinks it is possible to talk about …
… or something.

Easy as pie to make union busting a felony in our most progressive states f(WA, OR, CA, NV, IL, NY, MD) — and then get out of the way as the first 2000 people in the many telephone directories re-define our future.
[cut-and-paste]

Do this or do nothing!
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