Causes of disparate impact Part 2: state-level spending Remember our workforce? We had woodworking furniture factories, textile producers of children’s clothing and work gloves used around the world. Everyone competed for jobs. Ever wonder what happened to the company profits from our workforce if there was not enough money contributed to fix our roads and water systems? Did you notice companies used our workforce for decades and did not invest enough money for us to thrive and grow independently? Those companies still exist but no longer assist this community that helped them get started. The state is the force we have as citizens to ask that question. Before offering huge tax breaks, the state protects citizens by ensuring the investment in our workforce is sufficient enough to provide employment that does not cause harm. Allowing companies to leave our infrastructure crumbling and place workers back into fields is evidence of a lack of equal protection at the state level. So how does a state function without providing jobs? The federal government has traditionally compensated states per diem (or per person or household) for enrollees in programs that can prove indigency or low income. All prisoners, children, elderly, etc. are counted as a person by the federal government and funding is provided directly to states to ensure equal protections under the laws of the United States and the U.S. Constitution. Does anyone want to help build a company that leaves us sick and dying from employment activities to then rely on our state to supplement income inequality? Did anyone spending years working to build a life for yourself and your family in one of those reputable careers of woodworking and seamstressing want to send your child to a field to dig for sweet potatoes? Do you feel protected by a state that would let that happen? The longer a person remains on a federal funding program the longer a state can expect and budget for that person as an “expense.” For example, funding for food assistance is paid to a state through the U.S. Department of Agriculture for each individual as long as that individual needs assistance. Unless in times of war, a person needing assistance for food more than two years indicates a bigger problem than digging potatoes can solve. Nonetheless, in support of the U.S. Constitution, the federal government allows a state to receive compensation for every person or household in need of food assistance while job creation and wage growth for all provides equal protection. What if the state determines all disabled and elderly people with income can only receive $15 of the amount provided per diem by the federal government? The state is required to provide assistance to all disabled and elderly persons and a lengthy enrollment period is more profitable than a full investment per individual. For example, two disabled people living in one household are awarded $400 per month in food assistance by a federal program but the state pays only $15 per person. The state has profited $370 per month for enrollment of two people on a fixed income indefinitely, knowing one person spends more than $15 per month on food. A state is allowed to create rules to permanently enroll the most vulnerable (profitable) participants and our permanent deprivation of food becomes funding for the state to function without job creation or wage growth. To support the U.S. Constitution the food assistance program would be encouraging individuals’ life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. State government’s discretion that determines the elderly and disabled spend $15 per month on food to obtain a federal funding allocation is no accident? Mass incarceration and income inequality are now proven to affect us all, but it appears our state has a plan to use a new generation to create profits through federal funding programs using our citizens as commodities. There is a solution that does not require population decreases from death, jail or migration for work. There is a solution for home. The next article is “Causes of disparate impact Part 2: local spending.” Zorri N. Rush Founder/CEO of The Trotter Foundation • Eupora
