Poll: Americans Don't Think Government Is Doing a Good Job Combating Poverty

More than one-third of Americans believe government efforts over the past few decades to fight poverty have actually made matters worse for the poor, partly because anti-poverty programs have not been well-designed, according to a new survey.

In fact, among poll respondents considered poor, 40 percent of them believed that government efforts to reduce poverty had hurt those who need them the most, compared to 32 percent of non-poor respondents. Most respondents – 56 percent – believed that when government programs failed, the problem was how they were designed and implemented. Only 20 percent believed it was because there was “not enough money to make them successful,” while 17 percent said the benefits never got to those who needed them.

“The view that ‘the programs were not well-designed’ was the first choice of both the poor (42 percent) and the non-poor (62 percent),” stated the June/July poll, conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International.

The American Enterprise Institute collaborated with The Los Angeles Times on the survey, which measured attitudes toward the poor, poverty and welfare in the United States. It included responses from 1,202 adults – 235 of whom were “in poverty” and 854 of whom were categorized as “not in poverty.” Respondents who did not self-report their zip codes were not included in the “poverty” or “non-poverty” subgroups.

A whopping 73 percent said they didn’t think government knew how to eliminate poverty, even if it “were willing to spend whatever is necessary” to do so, according to the survey. Poor and non-poor people were closely aligned on that question, with 71 percent of the former and 76 percent of the latter saying that government does understand how to solve the problem.

In a four-page report on the recent survey, AEI contrasted the 2016 findings with a similar poll the think tank and the newspaper conducted on the topic back in 1985. Overall, two-thirds of the public – both poor and non-poor – believed in 1985 that people ultimately are responsible for their own well-being, and that statistic has not changed in more than 30 years, according to the 2016 survey. But that doesn’t mean they think government isn’t obligated in some way to help poor people: 29 percent said they strongly believed government is responsible for the well-being of all its citizens in 2016, compared to 24 percent in 1985.

And yet, government was the No. 1 response to this question in the 2016 poll: “Which of the following do you think have the greatest responsibility for helping the poor: charities, churches, families and relatives, the government, the poor themselves, or some other group or organization?” Thirty-five percent of respondents chose government, followed by 18 percent who picked “the poor themselves.”

The 2016 findings in general show that both poor and non-poor people believe fewer job opportunities and the Great Recession have made things worse for those on the lower end of the financial spectrum. And those factors have influenced their views on government programs designed to combat poverty. “Assessments of government programs are driven mostly by economic conditions,” wrote Bill Schneider, a professor at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, in the AEI report on the poll. “Disillusionment with government rises in bad times, and the past eight years have seen plenty of bad times.”

Schneider also argued that “antipoverty programs are difficult to sell politically” because they are targeted specifically at one demographic as opposed to, say, public infrastructure programs which benefit everyone. While middle-class voters typically are fine with disadvantaged people getting the help they need with housing and food, Schneider said, it’s “as long as they are convinced that the benefits are going to the truly needy and that no one is taking advantage of the system.”

Those complexities sometimes mean that politicians and government officials ignore the problem of poverty. “The results from the Los Angeles Times and AEI poll show that the poor continue to get a lot of compassion,” said Schneider. “What they do not get is a lot of attention.”

During the 2016 presidential campaign, there has been some discussion about raising the federal minimum wage, for example, but very little about the lack of affordable housing in the country. The 2016 poverty survey asked respondents which group – the wealthy, middle class, poor, or all equally – would benefit the most if Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton were elected. Just 2 percent believed the poor would benefit the most in a Trump administration, compared to 12 percent who said the same for a Clinton administration.

At least one prominent politician is trying to draw attention to poverty and how to fight it: House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. Ryan and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., published an Aug. 30 op-ed in USA Today, arguing that the federal government needs to stop competing with local organizations and entrepreneurs who are coming up with customized solutions to alleviating poverty in their communities. “What the federal government should do is direct resources to communities, let them try different ideas, then hold people accountable for results,” said the op-ed. “This more organic approach will empower people, giving them dignity rather than dependence.” The two said the government needs “to ditch the top-down solutions and take a bottom-up approach.”

Ryan this spring unveiled his “A Better Way” initiative, a broad vision for dealing with various issues, including how to fight poverty and provide better economic opportunities for all Americans.