Community: Cost of Poverty

The Cost of Poverty and the Value of Investment:
Can we afford to solve poverty? Can we afford not to?

Canadians want an end to poverty, but even those most committed to the solutions can still wonder if we can afford to.  We know there is a correlation between poverty and other areas of spending like health, education and justice, but just how much is poverty costing us?  And what results are we getting if poverty rates remain relatively stable?  If the methods used over the past 40 years haven't worked, isn't it time to try something else; to rethink our investments and spend more wisely to get better results?  We think so.

Many Canadians think that because we spend so much money already on poverty, it would take a lot more money to get better results - yet, as in most things in life, there is more than one way to reach a goal.

The National Council of Welfare is seeing a growing number of reports and articles addressing the costs associated with poverty and we've set out to find what has been done and what it tells us.  What we've discovered so far is extensive: specific studies with small sample sizes; big ambitious ones with blanket estimates; lots looking at the extended costs and the potential savings over the long term, but very few on what we actually pay for now; lots of people in the news with opinions and some with interesting recommendations and solutions; some new ideas and some that have been around but have yet to get off the ground.

We've gathered what we found in a Comprehensive Bibliography and we're opening it up to you. Because it is large and varied we thought some readers would appreciate help getting familiarized with the subject matter - if so, you may want to start with our Top Ten Picks.  Please feel free to give us your feedback or make a literary recommendation as we continue to collect and analyze the information.  Gathering and evaluating the costs and benefits of existing and potential new methods of eliminating poverty and its consequences will give us a better understanding of the real value of our current investments and help us to discover potential improvements in our spending.