Poverty, Politics and Profit

Accessible text version of the Week 11 Monday slides — same content in linear order, with no slide-scaling container. Film: Poverty, Politics and Profit (PBS Frontline with NPR, 2017, 54 min.), screened in class. Reading tie-back: Howard, Who Cares, ch. 7, “Housing” (Week 7).

POSC 459 — Social Welfare Politics and Policy Week 11 · Monday, November 2

PBS Frontline with NPR, 2017, 54 min.

The film follows the federal money for rent

Nearly $50 billion a year:

• Section 8 vouchers (HUD): help paying rent
• Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (IRS): help building

Correction: last Wednesday’s slide described this film wrongly.

Film narration · Howard ch. 7, pp. 8–9

You met the tax credit in Week 7: it pays to build

IRS → states → developers → investors → apartments

• About $10 billion a year
• About 100,000 units a year

“‘Low-Income’ does not mean poor.”

Howard ch. 7, p. 9

Paper 4: which reform better survives its own politics?

Welfare reform (1996) or the ACA (2010)? Test case: the tax credit

1. Who benefits?
2. Who can see it?
3. Who defends it?

Policy feedback: Pierson, Week 4

Quick write: four minutes

1. One moment: who, and what they said or did
2. Who benefits, who can see it, or who defends it?
3. Welfare reform or the ACA: who defended it? Is the tax credit like it?

Keep it for Paper 4 and Wednesday

Who stood up for each program?

• The tax credit: who spoke for it?
• Section 8: who spoke for it?
• Grassley: seven audits in 29 years

“policies also shape interest groups” (Pierson, p. 598)

Two counts of one program

Howard ch. 7, p. 9 · NPR’s analysis, in the film

Wednesday: the two reforms, side by side

• Wed 11/4: bring your quick write
• Fri 11/6, 11:59 p.m.: Paper 4, about 600 words
• One film moment + one reading claim, with a page number

Full prompt on Canvas · transcript on the film’s PBS page