The layers of our discontent

When you hear the political talking heads trying to define who are they intending to help, you can't help wondering how wise it is to actually define a layer of society that requires assistance to the expense of others. See all the debates about what is the poor, the middle class and the rich.  This is a fool's errand, any answer will only create arbitrary lines where none exist and feed distrust and discontent amongst the newly minted groups.

Let's assume, for the sake of argument that we can devise policies that target helping families with an annual income of 0-$50k a year. Let's assume that a dollar has the same purchasing power in NYC than in Omaha for the moment. Let's assume  that the policy is in place and it works, the life for this layer of the population is definitely better than it was before the policy. Success? Not really, this is why.

In a democratic society, the contiguous layer, say $51k-$60k will become unsettled. Now it is actually better to be in the lower layer, with the assistance of this policy, than to be in the neighboring layer without it. So now we may have one of two things happening. Some members of the higher layer will decide than is easier and better to decrease their earnings to qualify for the new successful policy.  The other section of the upper layer will call it foul and press for similar advantages. Neither outcome is good for society in general. It creates a sense that someone, somewhere is getting the short end of the stick or that we are never truly finished creating new entitlement programs. General unhappiness and runaway deficit spending. Today's world in a nutshell.

I think the problem is caused by a rigid approach that creates solid division lines within society where none exist. Those lines become fault lines that like in geology create the potential for trouble.

The answer is to devise policies that affect the roots of what is important to the people you are trying to help, but the benefits are spread within the society automatically. No effort required a to identify the population that they will affect.

An example:

The poorest people in any country spend 100% of their income in food.

Devise a policy to lower food prices.  For instance, stop burning 50% of our corn to make ethanol for gasoline. Use foodstuff for food.  That will lower food prices quickly. The poor will benefit more by this measure, but the whole of society will benefit. The benefit will spread through the system in an organic way, without the need to argue about who gets it and who doesn't.

Policies that require the specific identification of a beneficiary can cause social warfare. No doubt that some policies need to be applied that way, but we should think hard before we give up on a possible system solution.