In the United States, once a person has fallen into the social safety net, she is bound to return to it again and again. And training programs appear to be only moderately effective. Researchers who have sought to estimate their impact have found some benefits: they are worth the investment, but they are not able to alter the course of poverty. Changing neighborhoods also only helps a bit. One experiment in the United States moved thousands of families from low-income to higher-income neighborhoods, and found modest impacts, primarily on stress and quality of life, but the underlying patterns
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