May 31, 2018
The Washington Post reported on new research indicating that racial resentment is a major factor in the political support for cuts to TANF, food stamps, and other social welfare programs. While this is undoubtedly true, it is likely that widespread ignorance about the amount of money going to these programs is also a major factor.
Polls consistently show that people hugely overestimate the amount of money that the federal government is spending on various welfare programs. People routinely answer that they think these programs take up 30–50 percent of the budget. The actual figure would be in the neighborhood 3–10 percent, depending on how Medicaid is counted. While some of this exaggeration is attributable to racial bias, where people want to believe that their money is going to people of color, many liberals who support these programs also hugely exaggerate their size.
Part of the reason for the exaggeration is that the media routinely report spending in raw numbers that are absolutely meaningless to almost everyone who hears them. When the media report that we are spending $16.5 billion a year on TANF, that sounds like a huge amount of money to most people who hear it.
On the other hand, if the media cared about informing people, rather than stupid fraternity ritual reporting, it could tell people that we spend less than 0.4 percent of the budget on TANF. Unfortunately, reporters almost never put these huge numbers in any context where their audience will understand it, even though everyone acknowledges that no one can make any sense of $16.5 billion without context.
It is not easy to find effective ways to combat racial prejudice. It is easy to put big numbers in context. It is really sad that so many people who complain about racial prejudice are too damn lazy to take the few seconds needed to put big numbers in context.
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