15.2. What Can Be Done?
Proposals to help the cities have been heavily debated for many years. Generally, they have fallen into three categories.
• Regional planning. Urban communities built around central cities and their suburbs are really integrated economic units. But the problems faced by these communities often defy solution because so many local governments are involved. So some favor the creation of regional "super governments" that would have the power to coordinate many economic activities for the whole urban community.
• Federal aid. Some economists and urban planners want more direct federal involvement in programs designed to solve the problems of the cities. Under direct federal aid programs, the government dictates how the funds are to be spent.
Others feel that the states and local communities have a better sense of what is needed. Therefore, they favor block grants of federal funds. "Block grants" are lump sums that can be spent in any way that the community
receiving them thinks appropriate.
• Economic development. These proposals call for the cooperative efforts of government and the business community to solve the problems of the cities. An area designated as an urban enterprise zone would receive certain tax incentives. (See "Enterprise Zones" below.) The theory is that if businesses could be persuaded to locate in a blighted area, they would pro vide jobs and solve many economic problems.
15.3. Poverty in America
Poverty is relative. Would you say that a family with no running water, central heating, or electricity was poor? Kings lived under such conditions during the Middle Ages. No one then would have described them as poor, but anyone living in the United States today without these conveniences would be described that way.
The point is that the United States is a wealthy country-so wealthy, in fact, that even its low-income citizens may seem to be well-off when compared to the people in other countries.
Nevertheless, there are many in the United States who would not have enough to eat without help from government or private agencies. There are families who live in inadequate and substandard housing. There are people who live on the streets because they have no housing at all.
Family income defines poverty. Government statisticians calculate how much it would take to provide a family with "essential food," then they multiply that figure by three.
The result is the "poverty threshold," and families with incomes falling below that line are considered to be poor. (See Table 15-2).
The poverty threshold changes each year with changes in the cost of living. It also varies with the size and age of the family. Some people disagree with the government's definition of poverty. They say it overstates the number of the poor because it fails to consider the value of government benefits. If these were included in total family income, they claim, far fewer people would be included in poverty statistics.
