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Diapers Show Why America Needs a Basic Income
Incredibly, America’s welfare programs do not pay for diapers.
Strangely, diapers show us why America needs a basic income. Incredibly, America’s welfare programs do not pay for diapers.
In fact, U.S. Representatives Barbara Lee (D-California) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) introduced an End Diaper Need Act to Congress in March 2019. They designed the Act to pay for diapers for poor families.
The diaper dilemma shows everything wrong with our welfare state. Congress just woke up to the fact that babies need diapers last year. Yet people have been putting diapers on babies for centuries.
The Diaper Dilemma
Diapers are a problem for the poor because it costs between $70 and $80 a month to buy disposable babies for a baby, The National Diaper Network reports. That’s $840 to $960 a year to buy diapers for a child.
Diapers can be a huge burden on the poor and working class. For instance, the average lower-class household income in America was $25,624 a year in 2016, Investopedia reports.
Poor families that lack a car to drive to Costco; or the money for an Amazon Prime subscription, could pay more for diapers. Lack of transportation could force those families to…
