Part V details the accomplishments and shortcomings of antipoverty policies in addressing poverty in rural America. The first two chapters underscore the need for policy makers to recognize that particular features of rural areas mandate policy solutions tailored to these features. The final chapter reprises the theme of the book and answers two questions: Why is rural poverty neglected, and what is to be done?
Chapter 14, “The Safety Net in Rural America,” reviews the extent to which current policies reduce income poverty in rural and urban America. It reveals that safety net programs significantly reduce poverty, but even so leave between 6 and 7 million rural residents in poverty. Uniform federally funded and administered social insurance and welfare programs do the most to reduce rural poverty. Programs jointly funded by federal and state governments whose design and implementation have devolved to the states, such as the TANF block grant, have been less successful. Consequently, the chapter warns that reforms that would devolve even more responsibility on the states could worsen poverty for rural Americans.
Chapter 15, “The Opportunities and Limits of Economic Growth,” argues that rural areas “suffer from some basic structural features that constrain the ability of economic development efforts to reduce poverty.” For instance, low population density, few industries in rural areas, and a growing population in urban (but not rural) areas all account for market issues in rural America. The author argues that community-based solutions are more effective at alleviating rural poverty because they combine profit motives with social objectives and better invoke the voice of the community. Market-based strategies alone are not enough, however. Foundations and government resources are needed to expand funding for these antipoverty solutions.
Chapter 16, “Politics and Policy: Barriers and Opportunities for Rural Peoples,” restates the goal of the text: to rectify the pervasive lack of serious scholarly attention to the issue and to bring this neglect to the attention of students, scholars, the public, and policy makers who often display deep ignorance of the issue. The chapter broadly summarizes the lessons brought to light and focuses on two questions. Answers to the first question—Why is rural poverty neglected?—are found in demographic issues (such as the relatively small size of the rural population, its obscurity, and its demographic composition); pervasive myths of idyllic self-sufficiency; the lack of specific policy to address rural issues, especially rural poverty; and the embedment of the roots of rural poverty in formal social institutions including the role of the state, faith-based institutions, and the legal system. To answer the second question—What can be done?—a four-part prescription going into the future is offered: be aware that the problems of poverty exist as part of larger structures of stratification, inequalities, and power dynamics; refine and extend the diagnosis of the problems; encourage and support more and better research; and, most of all, strive for better policy and programs tailored to meet the specific needs of rural people and places.