Financial success and the right for basic needs in lives is delinked from the work and the assumption of individual responsibility
Heather Hahn and Margaret Simms 21, Heather Hahn is associate vice president for management in the Center on Labor, Simms was vice president for governance and economic analysis at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. "Poverty Results from Structural Barriers, Not Personal Choices. Safety Net Programs Should Reflect That Fact.,", Urban Institute, https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/poverty-results-structural-barriers-not-personal-choices-safety-net-programs-should-reflect-fact//ethanh
As the pandemic enters its second year, to allow them to meet basic expenses while the economy continues to struggle, in part because many people see COVID-19-related economic challenges as the result of external causes and not the fault of individual people.
Yet many families—especially people of color, who have been —were already facing severe economic challenges because of structural barriers preventing them from reaping the benefits of a strong economy. These families sometimes rely on federal safety net programs to access the resources they need to afford food, rent, and other necessities.
But the social safety net is fundamentally inequitable. The structure of programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) ignore systemic barriers rooted in that disproportionately affect people of color, especially Black Americans. Instead, these programs are meager and punitive, designed to blame individual shortcomings—even though evidence debunks the myth that laziness or poor choices cause poverty.
The current economic crisis and its disproportionate impacts highlight the need to redesign safety net programs to rectify these inequities and ensure everyone can access the resources they need to provide for their families.
Structural barriers cause poverty, not individual choices
A focus on individual responsibility is rooted in the assumptions of the American dream, which promotes the idea that if someone works hard, follows social and moral rules, and takes personal responsibility, they will be financially successful. So, under this assumption, if they are struggling financially, they must have done something wrong or aren’t working hard enough. And too often, these expectations are seen through a racist lens, which perpetuates .
These ideas about who experiences poverty and why are flawed because they ignore the structural forces that contribute to poverty. Numerous make it more difficult for some people to provide for their families. These structures drive disparities in access to , , , , , and , as well as in interaction with the justice system and .
Racial disparities and discrimination are . Racial gaps in educational access and attainment, as well as Black workers’ overrepresentation in low-wage industries and occupations, contribute to a . And even among people with comparable education, Black people receive lower wages than their white peers. These disparities are what contribute to economic insecurity and poverty.