Racism Is the Biggest Reason the U.S. Safety Net Is So Weak

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Last week, the economics profession lost one of its leading lights -- Harvard professor Alberto Alesina. The Italian economist, who died of a heart attack at age 63, helped revolutionize the field of political economy.

Economists are often criticized for ignoring the political aspects of their theories. At least since the end of World War II, economists have generally seen their role as offering expert advice to wise technocratic leaders -- “whispering in the ears of princes.” But in the real world, leaders with both the wisdom to listen to academic experts and the power to implement any much less all of their recommendations are quite rare; more often, the political world is a tangle of interest groups, culture wars, partisan bickering and electoral expediency.

Some economists throw up their hands at this mess and conclude that if leaders aren’t going to listen to reason, so be it. Not Alesina. He waded directly into the tangled mess, using theory and data to try to tease out the complicated interplay between politics and economics.

One of the big questions Alesina tackled was why the U.S. doesn’t have the generous welfare benefits of advanced countries in Europe. His answer, along with co-authors Edward Glaeser and Bruce Sacerdote, was twofold. First, U.S. institutions -- the Senate, the electoral system, the legal system -- were designed much earlier than their modern European equivalents, and are thus more oriented toward protecting private property above all else. But in addition, the economists found evidence that racial animosity was a source of American exceptionalism:

Opponents of redistribution in the United States have regularly used race-based rhetoric to resist left-wing policies…Within the United States, race is the single most important predictor of support for welfare. America’s troubled race relations are clearly a major reason for the absence of an American welfare state.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/racism-biggest-reason-u-safety-120018763.html

[area51]

1. Heard this mentioned a little while back as the reason why we don't have

healthcare as a basic right.

[Caliman73]

2. He is correct. Racism is the reason for a great many problems in the US.

Labor Unions fought for better wages and working conditions since the industrial revolution, and not ALL but enough Union structures were exclusive of non-White people that they cast aside a very large group of people who could have helped the movement make stronger gains. The Labor movement was divided by racial tensions throughout, which allowed conservatives to pit White Unionists against Black and Mexican workers defeating solidarity.

Feminism, at least the first wave, also left out a bunch of women based on race. Women of color were not considered with regards to the sisterhood as primarily White women fought to gain the ability to work while women of color were already forced to work because of economic reasons. The needs of women of color were seen as secondary or not necessary in the early days of feminist struggle.

We definitely need to have a deep, hard look at race in this country and figure an equitable way forward.

[Proud liberal 80]

3. Man the yahoo comments section

Where you can find the most racist post with people hiding behind their anonymity.