The Business of Keeping People Poor

The U.S. government spends approximately one trillion dollars annually to help low-income Americans meet basic needs.

Anne Kim states that welfare is a big business, highlighting the irony of making significant money from poverty.

The U.S. poverty rate in the 1950s was approximately 22%, double what it is today.

President Lyndon B. Johnson declared an unconditional "War on Poverty" in America in 1964.

Ronald Reagan initiated the privatization of government spending, including welfare, which was further expanded under Bill Clinton's administration.

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) can provide up to approximately $7,000 for families with children.

Liberty Tax Service was sued by the District of Columbia for allegedly luring low-income people and secretly skimming money from their tax refunds, including the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Anne Kim states that the complexity of the Earned Income Tax Credit has created a predatory industry for high-interest cash products like refund anticipation loans, which are essentially payday loans.

A Washington Post investigation in Washington D.C. found that the D.C. government was overpaying thousands of Section 8 apartments by approximately one million dollars every month.

Maximus, a welfare services provider, saw its revenues grow from approximately $88 million in 1995 to $500 million a few years later, and is now a $4.9 billion business.

Maximus's gross profit margin is 20%, while its net profit margin is approximately 3%.

Kool Smiles, a Medicaid-specific dental franchise, settled with the U.S. government for close to $24 million after an investigation found they performed medically unnecessary dental operations.

The government pays dialysis centers approximately $380 per treatment.

DaVita, a large dialysis center company, has paid approximately one billion dollars in settlements for various behaviors, including $350 million for recruiting patients and $450 million for billing the government for discarded medicine.

Corporate middlemen like Maximus were paid $1,600 per child in Alaska for identifying foster children who qualified for federal benefits and diverting that money to state coffers.