A (there are many) problem with this (the original link is back) is that any problem with the poors must be addressed with an unworkable expensive Rube Goldberg mechanism which provides little direct benefit and demands more "sacrifice" from people who are generally already hustling (I mean that in a good way) more than full time just to pay their rent.
We read a million think pieces about the problems with the upper middle class every year. Self-care is big this year. I think sleep (thanks, Arianna!) was big last year. The year before was the difficulties of affording a suitable apartment in Manhattan. How to get your kids into top private kindergartens is a good one. Why there's no shame in certain kinds of people having mental illness is a current favorite. How rich women can have it all seems to be popular right now. "Battles with cancer" by people with good insurance are feel good heroic tales of survival.
Anyway, the point of all the above paragraph is that the struggles of people who by most measures aren't struggling perpetually demand our interest and sympathies. And all people have tragedies and struggles that are real! I've got shit in my own life to deal with. Poor people have all of the problems of upper middle class/rich people plus the minor added problem of not having any fucking money or time which kind of makes the rest of it all a bit harder. But, hey, let's give them an app and demand they "sacrifice" (which they will because they love their children! unless they don't!) and have their existence revolve around meeting benchmarks and proving they've improved their nutritional intake or whatever the fuck. Put in your 3 hours on the treadmill to receive your hamster pellet. The gameification of welfare! It's all very Black Mirror.
The attitude by some, as with Obamacare, is that any improvement is worth the shit that accompanies it. Often this is true (I agree that it's true with Obamacare specifically, though failure to heed the warnings of why the politics of Obamacare was going to be shit and not because it was "too socialist" made it worse than it had to be. Everybody loves the socialist part!). The question is, why do we have to load up everything with two tons of shit? We used to joke that conservatives say government sucks and then when they get in power they prove it. Now it seems that conservatives say that government sucks and liberals bend over backwards to make their case for them.
