PLANNING POVERTY

When it comes to discussions about poverty in American and the role welfare programs have played, the talking tends to dwell on two major aspects: defining poverty and its causes, and identifying ways to end poverty.

Currently, households with four persons and a combined annual income below $15,600 are considered to be living in poverty in this country. However, an untold number of Americans manage to meet their needs with less than that by being frugal and by making every penny count.

If nothing else, the massive welfare programs -- both federal and state -- have taught us that giving people handouts doesn't necessarily make them responsible handlers of money. Nor, for the most part, does the dole simply help people who are temporarily in a bind. Instead, Americans who are below the poverty level and who seek handouts from the government tend to exist in that system as a way of life.

Recently, the East Missouri Action Agency did some polling in Southeast Missouri to determine what area residents think are the reasons for poverty and what steps might be taken to reduce the number of people at that level. Information from the polls will be combined with similar information from around the country to formulate national policy on poverty.

There are more than a few reasons for legitimate concern in this process. For one thing, the community action agencies compiling the information are -- and have been for many years -- a part of a vast bureaucracy whose very existence depends on finding more ways to spend federal dollars. Moreover, some of the polling results give pause to the intent of the factfinding effort. When poll respondents put "jobs" and "meeting basic needs" at the top of a list to end poverty, are they saying they are willing to work to provide for themselves? Or are they saying the government should create jobs for the poor in order to give welfare a new twist?

And when the poll respondents place job training lower down on the list of priorities, should this be taken as an indication the welfare-dependent poor would rather get monthly checks than get skills that would make them employable?

It can be hoped that the community action agencies are genuinely interested in finding the answers to these questions. Unfortunately, the track record of bureaucrats who are given license to ordain their own destiny is less than admirable.