[LINK] How rational is the US federal state

I know nothing about the US so all this disscussion is way over my head, but isn't the US population only about 300 million? I don't know what kind of scholarships you're talking about, but 126 million is about half the population, which seems implausible.

Xachariah14y50

That's the joke. The article implies Pell Grants "and stuff" are making up 70% of our wellfare spending . Pell Grants are a scholarship with a maximum reward of $5,550. Hence if we were actually spending the way that they're implying, then 40% of our total population is in college in any given year.

I'm was trying to point out the absurdity of the their 'rounding'

0TimS14y

From the article: [...] This number is meaningless for measuring the amount spend on poverty reduction, however broadly that is defined. No one thinks money spent on (1) fraud prevention, (2) food safety, (3) basic research, (4) judicial salaries for civil dispute resolution, or similar programs alleviate poverty. Edit: When I say "alleviate poverty," I mean charity. Or, as the linked article calls it: "welfare"

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