Janet Yellen, with a Ph.D. in economics, said racial equity is the centerpiece of the Biden-Harris economic agenda, although she knows that America’s equity programs have been economically disastrous. They have had negative cost-benefits. Instead of facilitating a foundation for equality of opportunity, they are increasing inequality, and most recipients are demotivated to improve their skills and demoralized by inclusion.

The Democrats, though, don’t care about the reality of equity programs; they need the illusion of creating an equal foundation because equity schemes have been a potent means for Democrats to use taxpayer dollars to buy votes from Blacks and Latinos since the mid-1960s.

In 1964 and 1965, Democrats secured the Black and Latino voting blocks. They passed legislation for a massive equity program called welfare, and an immigration program to treat immigrants from anywhere equitably and like citizens when it came to welfare.

Since 1965, the cost of welfare, which excludes social security and Medicare, has increased on average by 7.4% annually. The annual price tag is about $1.16 trillion. In 2018, Black poverty was 20.8%, a decrease of 1.3% from 2000. For Latinos, it was 17.6%, a decrease of 3.6% from 2000. In 18 years, about 901,000 people have been lifted from poverty or about 1.2% of an annual population of recipients of 68 million.

Image: Handing out money (edited) by freepic.diller.

Based on this spending, it costs American taxpayers $22 million to lift one person from poverty and onto a level playing field. If Build Back Better had passed in its original form, average welfare payments to a family would have increased another 17%, further securing Democratic votes, at least for the next election.

In 2012, 13.2% of White Americans, 42% of Blacks, and 36% of Latinos received welfare. The most damaging effects of welfare are that it encourages an increasing number of children to be raised in single-parent households and it facilitates government dependence.

Blacks are 40% more likely to be dependent than Latinos and four times more likely than Whites. Most dependent families live in poverty and have parents who are high-school dropouts and unemployed. Single-parent, female-headed households were 878% more likely to be dependent than married couples.

Before welfare, 22% of African American households were single parent, Black crime was low, and they knew education was the great equalizer. In 2019, 64% of Black children lived in single-parent households, getting an education is associated with “acting White,” and Black crime is high and getting higher due to equity-driven approaches to policing and sentencing.

Among Latinos, 42% of children live in single-parent households. For whites and Asians, it is 24% and 15%, respectively. The increased problems for children in single-parent families include lower education, increased criminal involvement, and higher rates of mental health issues.

Affirmative Action-type programs are equity-oriented. They have been created to improve educational opportunities for minorities, of which Blacks and Latinos have benefitted the most.  Or have they?

When people with fewer but still high qualifications are merged with those with higher qualifications, the former can’t keep up. This can lead students to change to less academically demanding programs, drop out, or suffer mentally from knowing their performance is inferior to that of their classmates. Some students don’t keep up because they carry the stigma of being a token or somehow unequal, rather than someone who attained a position based on merit. This is true even when those students actually would have attained a position based on merit.

Equity sounds so appealing. It sounds fair, just like socialism, another colossal failure. Giving people free money and benefits will motivate voting behaviors but not behaviors to improve skills and lay a foundation for equality of opportunity. To do that, people must take pride in what they have achieved, like supporting their families and ensuring children have a better education than their parents.

Equity programs are like giving a person a fish and feeding him for a day. Focusing on educational and other skills development is like teaching people to fish and feeding them for a lifetime. This latter approach also allows voters to understand the issues America faces, rather than simply casting their vote for another fish.