Though TANF has seen some success stories in moving welfare recipients to work, particularly in the reform’s early years, the program has left many more in poverty without offering support systems to improve their lives and foster inclusion. This comprehensive article takes a critical look at the nation’s primary program for assisting low-income families.

Gaining currency on the left of late is the concept of providing to every citizen, without return obligation, a “basic income.” Swiss voters rejected a basic income proposal last year, but several nations, from Finland and the Netherlands to Kenya and India are running limited experiments this year. Oakland, CA is joining them. This article on the DW site looks at both sides of the issue.

Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy examines the desperation and neglect that lie behind violence in our inner cities.

Among Trump’s budget proposals intended to make life even harder for the poor is elimination of a federal program that helps 6 million low-income Americans with their utility bills. This Washington Post piece looks at the program and its recipients.

In this Guardian piece, socialist author and activist Guy Standing makes a case for a universal basic income.

This fascinating tool allows you to calculate a required monthly or annual income to sustain a basic lifestyle in any region of the country for from singletons to families of four. Huge disparities in cost of living around the country (a singleton needs $43,581 in the San Francisco Bay area but only $28,181 in rural Mississippi) are why The Social Democrat supports a federal minimum wage tied to regional costs of living. How much income is needed to get by in your neighborhood?

Trump aims to eliminate HUD-funded programs that help low-income citizens make essential home repairs. (–April 5, 2017)

America’s inadequate safety net leaves many basic needs unmet.

Faced with Trump’s budget cuts, rural Trump voters are getting a crash course in how social democratic programs have improved—and in some cases, saved—their lives.