September 25, 2019 2:00PM # Poll: 79% of Americans Say Economic Growth Will Better Help People Climb Out of Poverty Than More Welfare Spending By [Emily Ekins](https://www.cato.org/people/emily-ekins) --- SHARE [![https://www.cato.org/publications/survey-reports/what-americans-think-about-poverty-wealth-work](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/2019-09/Cover%20for%20web.jpg?itok=PmSlo42A)](https://www.cato.org/publications/survey-reports/what-americans-think-about-poverty-wealth-work) The [Cato 2019 Welfare, Work, and Wealth National Survey](https://www.cato.org/publications/survey-reports/what-americans-think-about-poverty-wealth-work) finds that 79% of Americans believe that more economic growth rather than more welfare spending (19%) will better help people escape poverty. The focus on economic growth over welfare spending is not controversial. Majorities of Democrats (69%), independents (76%), Republicans (90%), current welfare recipients (76%), and nonrecipients (79%) agree more economic growth will better help people in poverty. *[Full survey results and report found here.](https://www.cato.org/publications/survey-reports/what-americans-think-about-poverty-wealth-work)* Despite this, a majority of Democrats (66%) would also like to raise welfare spending, while 61% of independents and 83% of Republicans would not. This implies that Democrats do not believe increasing welfare spending comes at a cost to economic growth. Republicans, on the other hand, appear to believe that increasing government spending (and thus taxes) to fund expanded social services detracts from economic growth. ![Americans say economic growth will do more to help than welfare spending](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/2019-09/74_Welfare6.jpg?itok=vV2aT_7A) **70% of Americans Say Government Should Try to Eliminate Causes of Poverty Rather Than Increase Welfare Benefits** In addition to focusing on growth, Americans would prefer lawmakers focus efforts on addressing the root causes of poverty rather than expand the scope of social services: 70%) think it’s better to spend money trying to “eliminate the causes of poverty,” while 29% would rather allocate more resources directly to the poor to help them “get back on their feet.” ![Most say it's better for gov't to focus efforts on eliminating poverty's root causes](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/images/wealth-work-survey/ekins-wealth-work-survey-73.jpg?itok=rF93O3d7) Majorities of welfare recipients (59%), previous recipients (71%), and nonrecipients (72%) would prefer government focus its efforts on reducing the causes of poverty rather than expanding benefits. **25% of Americans Favor Cutting Government Food Assistance to the Poor** Although Americans want government to prioritize economic growth and solving the root causes of poverty first, few want to cut assistance to the poor.For instance, only 25% favor cutting government spending on food assistance to low-income people, while 41% favor increasing it and 33% would keep spending about the same.[\[1\]](#_ftn1) ![Plurality support increasing spending on government food assistance](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/images/wealth-work-survey/ekins-wealth-work-survey-75.jpg?itok=qquhVLvL) Not surprisingly, partisans disagree. Two-thirds (66%) of Democrats would rather increase spending on food stamps, compared to 39% of independents and 17% of Republicans. Republicans are divided between cutting spending on food stamps (45%) and keeping it about the same (38%). Nevertheless, strong majorities of Democrats (67%), independents (63%), and Republicans (76%) all agree they’d prefer resources be directed toward reducing the causes of poverty before increasing welfare benefits. ***Read more of the survey report [here](https://www.cato.org/publications/survey-reports/what-americans-think-about-poverty-wealth-work).*** *The Cato Institute 2019 Welfare, Work, and Wealth Survey was designed and conducted by the Cato Institute in collaboration with YouGov. YouGov collected responses online March 5 to 8, 2019 from a representative national sample of 1,700 Americans 18 years of age and older. The margin of error for the survey is +/- 2.2 percentage points at the 95% level of confidence.* --- [\[1\]](//C7C7813D-EA5A-42C7-AC89-318390F3851D#_ftnref1)Total percent may not sum to 100 due to rounding. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Social Welfare and Poverty](https://www.cato.org/social-welfare-poverty), [Universal Basic Income](https://www.cato.org/research/universal-basic-income), [Center for Representative Government](https://www.cato.org/center-representative-government), [Public Opinion](https://www.cato.org/public-opinion) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).