Young People Are Poorer Than Ever and Government Programs Are Failing Them

By Allie Conti, Vice

The federal government has committed to taking better care of children and the very old since the 1970s. That’s when Congress began the process of making sure Social Security kept up with inflation, and when the earned income tax credit (EITC), which greatly benefits low-income families with kids, was first passed into law. But the social safety net that has been constructed since then is failing young adults who are contending with a transformed economy, according to a new report out of the University of California, Berkeley, called “The Rise of Young Adult Poverty in the U.S.”

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