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VERNON E. JORDAN, JR.

A national full-employment policy along the lines I have out-

lined here would make unemployment a thing of the past, turn

revenue-consumers into producers, generate tax income to pay

for itself, and remove the curse of joblessness from the land.

A national full-employment policy, along with a national

income-maintenance plan, would have its greatest impact right

here in the South, and would go a long way towards bringing our

region to economic parity with the rest of the country.

Such a policy would not, by itself, end poverty, for there would

remain those who are unable to work, who are incapable of work-

ing and thus in need of assistance that would enable them to

maintain a decent living standard. The welfare system is supposed

to do this, but its faults are too numerous to detail here. Everyone

agrees that the welfare system is a mess, that it discourages work,

penalizes the poor, and encourages dependency. It is an inconsis-

tent patchwork of bureaucratic interference in people’s lives, wildly varying benefit scales, and costly administrative charges.

But its worst fault is that it doesn’t work. The welfare system

for the poor is not nearly as efficient as the welfare system com-

posed of tax loopholes and subsidies for the wealthy. That’s why

there is growing support for a welfare reform program that as-

sures a livable minimum income while relieving state and local

governments of the increasing burden of providing for the needs

of the poor.

I believe the most efficient reform would be a universal refund-

able credit income tax that would extend a basic annual grant, or

tax credit, to all. That grant would be taxable income, so that the







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