The United States is falling behind other countries in the war on poverty, according to Public Policy Prof. Sheldon Danziger.

Danziger delivered a lecture called "America's Persisting Poverty: What Research Says About How to Reduce It" yesterday afternoon in the Rackham Amphitheater.

Danziger said poverty persists because when the economy is flourishing it does not deliver prosperity to everyone. He criticized the idea that poverty is exacerbated by too much government aid or the failure of government anti-poverty programs.

Danziger expressed admiration for the anti-poverty policies implemented in the United Kingdom after Tony Blair's 1999 call to end child poverty. Specifically, he pointed to the Work For Those Who Can, Security For Those Who Cannot and Services and Policies For Young Children social programs, noting that these and others cost less than 1 percent of the British GDP and resulted in significantly decreased poverty rates in the United Kingdom.

He also showed a graph to indicate that while the British minimum wage has increased about 40 percent since 1999, the U.S. national minimum wage has not changed.

"(The British anti-poverty policies have) resulted in a dramatic reduction in child poverty," he said. "The last time I checked, the U.K. hasn't collapsed since the government became more concerned about the well-being of the poor."

When asked how other aspects of the British anti-poverty system could be made to function in the U.S., Danziger qualified his point.

"I'm not arguing we should have a whole European social safety net because that wouldn't apply (in the United States)" he said.

Danziger then proposed a modest anti-poverty initiative he designed to cut the U.S. poverty rate in half.

Danziger's suggested program includes expanding the earned income tax credit for single people and childless couples, subsidizing health care for those not covered by Medicare and Medicaid, and providing transitional jobs of last resort for people no longer entitled to cash welfare who want to work but cannot find jobs. He said these jobs could be offered by nonprofit or community-based organizations.

Danziger also voiced strong support for a higher minimum wage.

"(Other) economies have not collapsed after the minimum wage was raised," he said.

Danziger said American society's lack of trust in the government to handle tax dollars and develop worthwhile social programs has affected the war on poverty.

"Americans have never put as much stock in their government as people in other countries (have put in theirs)," he said. "People think government is wasteful and inefficient."

"(Americans) are less willing to provide tax money, less likely to trust the government to do anything, less likely to believe the government can be successful, and (therefore) they are less likely to feel responsible for the poor," he said.

Danziger concluded that in the United States there is a shifting attitude towards greater tolerance for higher levels of poverty.

"Most (Americans) feel they are not going to be poor, so they don't feel the need for programs," he said. "When a person's elderly parents are sick and Medicaid pays for their hospital bills, that's when he says, 'That's a good government program'."

University President Mary Sue Coleman gave opening remarks for the lecture.

"This is the most complicated of topics presented by the most enlightened of minds," she said.