[MechEStudent]

Welfare is engineered to fail, and it fails. You can't build a system by American political committee and expect it to actually work.

There are known good solutions for poverty that work reliably and consistently well. That isn't what the US welfare system is engineered for. It is engineered to put money in the hands of political donors, not resolve poverty.

The solution to resolving poverty, much like the Buffet rule for politicians, would work overnight, but will never be implemented. Buffet says a law that says no standing politician is eligible for re-election in a year when minimum true GDP year-over-year growth for the last 2 years has been below 3% would work. He is right.

A similar law, based on "theory of constraints" and directly extractable from the pages of "the goal" would work for poverty, but has (sadly sadly) the same political palatability as drinking a gallon of raw sewage.

Dang this lost, broken, wrecked political system and the scoundrels who are in power and abuse it.

[saint_fiasco]

> Buffet says a law that says no standing politician is eligible for re-election in a year when minimum true GDP year-over-year growth for the last 2 years has been below 3% would work. He is right.

There is no way Buffet isn't aware of Goodhart's Law. He is smart. Are you sure you didn't misunderstand him somehow?

[valar_m]

> There are known good solutions for poverty that work reliably and consistently well.

Can you give some examples?

[danieltillett]

Science and technology. Has been the only thing that has gotten the world out of the default historical state of 99% poverty.

[valar_m]

Sounds like you're answering "What strategy may work to solve poverty?" or something close to that. OP said there are "known good solutions for poverty that work reliably and consistently well". I'm interested to hear what is known to work, not what might work.

[danieltillett]

No science and technology are the only things that has been shown to work. Since the industrial revolution the same playbook has been applied successfully in country after country. Look at China. It was not until they allowed science and technology to be used to its full capacity did they drag the vast majority of people out of grinding poverty.

The parts of the world where poverty is still high are those where science and technology have not yet arrived.

[danieltillett]

You do realise what would happen if you used this rule - our data on GDP would cease to be accurate (not that it is too accurate now).

The basic problem is the politicians work for the owners and the poor are not owners of anything.