The argument for social assistance programs as a net benefit for a productive society

Most conservatives dislike any time of "entitlement" program, or at the very least want them to be first on the chopping block when it comes to spending cuts. Typically the accusation is that liberals are too emotional in their policy analysis and only support these programs for feel good reasons. This is incorrect.

While I do believe there is a argument to be made for these programs on the basis of it just being a responsible thing to do, i also believe it behooves our society to nurture as healthy and well adjusted a populace as reasonably possible, as those people will then grow up to be more productive members of society, which will benefit America as a whole. I believe the stats support this.

-There’s considerable evidence that good old-fashioned welfare works well. Research on the Mothers' pension programs from the early 20th century showed that kids whose mothers received a very modest welfare check ended up with early-adult incomes that were 20 percent higher than those of mothers who didn’t receive checks, and were also 35 percent less likely to be underweight as adults and received additional schooling.

-More modern welfare programs work too. A January 2015 paper by David Brown, Amanda Kowalski, and Ithai Lurie studied Medicaid expansions in the 1980's and 90's and concluded that kids who benefited from expansion ended up paying more in cumulative taxes and receiving less in EITC disbursements than those who did not.

-Speaking of the EITC, in 2013, a paper by Michelle Maxfield found that kids whose parents benefited from increased EITC generosity had higher math scores, were more likely to graduate high school, and were more likely to complete one or more years of college.

-Indeed, it is in some ways likely that standard methods are undercounting the benefits of social assistance programs. Chloe East, Sarah Miller, Marianne Page, and Laura Wherry found in September 2017 that the grandchildren of low-income pregnant women who benefited from Medicaid expansion in the 1980s were less likely to suffer from low birth weight (which itself seems to correlate with low IQ, among other health problems).

As a society, we can, and should, take decisive action to reduce environmental contamination and improve the material living conditions of poor children and their parents. The evidence that doing this will have broad secondary benefits for cognitive development, and by proxy make them more productive adults, is overwhelming.