public assistance

Examples of public assistance in the following topics:

• Public Assistance

  • Public assistance is the provision of a minimal level of social support for all citizens.
  • In most developed countries, public assistance is provided by the government, charities, social groups, and religious groups.
  • Individuals must meet specific criteria to be eligible to receive public assistance.
  • In the United States, the funds for public assistance are given at a flat rate to each state based on population.
  • Individuals must apply for monetary public assistance and meet specific criteria.

• Impact of Public Policy on Unemployment

  • Public policy seeks to minimize unemployment by providing information, training, facilities, and other programs to assist the unemployed.
  • The government can provide facilities to increase availability and flexibility - for example, providing daycare may allow part-time or non-workers to transition into full-time jobs, and public transportation may widen the number of jobs available to somebody without a car.
  • The government may also fund publicity campaigns or other programs to combat prejudice against certain types of workers, jobs, or locations.
  • Public policy can respond to structural unemployment through programs like job training and education to equip workers with the skills firms demand.

• Development Assistance

  • Although assistance to nations with grave economic problems evolved slowly, the United States in April 1948 launched the Marshall Plan to spur European recovery from the war.
  • President Harry S Truman (1944-1953) saw assistance as a means of helping nations grow along Western democratic lines.
  • In the 1980s, USAID was still providing assistance in varying amounts to 56 nations.
  • Increasingly, it emphasizes food and nutrition; population planning and health; education and human resources; specific economic development problems; famine and disaster relief assistance; and Food for Peace, a program that sells food and fiber on favorable credit terms to the poorest nations.
  • Proponents of American foreign assistance describe it as a tool to create new markets for American exporters, to prevent crises and advance democracy and prosperity.

• The Global Economy

  • The IMF, to which the United States contributed 25 percent of an initial $8,800 million in capital, often requires chronic debtor nations to undertake economic reforms as a condition for receiving its short-term assistance.
  • Countries generally need IMF assistance because of imbalances in their economies.
  • Recognizing that uncertainty and lack of information were contributing to volatility in international financial markets, the IMF also began publicizing its actions; previously, the fund's operations were largely cloaked in secrecy.

• Introduction to American Agriculture: Its Changing Significance

  • But in recent years, such assistance has declined, reflecting government's desire to cut its own spending, as well as the farm sector's reduced political influence.
  • Calls for government assistance come when factors work against the farmers' success; at times, when different factors converge to push farms over the edge into failure, pleas for help are particularly intense.

• In the 1980s and 1990s

  • Although the 1985 law only modestly affected the government farm-assistance structure, improving economic times helped keep the subsidy totals down.
  • A new Republican Congress, elected in 1994, sought to wean farmers from their reliance on government assistance.

• The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis of 2008

  • The Fed also provided targeted assistance to bail out large financial institutions that would have otherwise collapsed.
  • The Fed also provided billions of dollars of assistance to AIG, an insurance firm that had invested heavily in mortgage loans .
  • Without the assistance the firm would have collapsed, possibly causing a chain reaction of failing financial institutions.

• The Current Account

  • Typically, such transfers are done in the form of donations, aids, or official assistance.
  • Other services can also be transferred between countries, such as when a financial adviser in one country assists clients in another.
  • Similarly, a debit in the cash transfers column might be the provision of official assistance by the local economy to a foreign economy.

• Small Business

  • Congress also created the Small Business Administration in 1953 to provide professional expertise and financial assistance (35 percent of federal dollars award for contracts is set aside for small businesses) to persons wishing to form or run small businesses.
  • In addition, the agency sponsors a program in which retired entrepreneurs offer management assistance for new or faltering businesses.
  • Working with individual state agencies and universities, the SBA also operates about 900 Small Business Development Centers that provide technical and management assistance.

• Movement South and Westward

  • Like canals and roads, railroads received large amounts of government assistance in their early building years in the form of land grants.
  • Nevertheless, a combination of vision and foreign investment, combined with the discovery of gold and a major commitment of America's public and private wealth, enabled the nation to develop a large-scale railroad system, establishing the base for the country's industrialization.