No. 156: Pregnancy Payments

Imagine a government program so impactful and well-executed that everyone who is eligible for it signs up. That is the case for Rx Kids, a program in Flint, MI that provided financial support to new mothers and reduced the number of premature births and NICU admissions. It's the most popular cash transfer program I've come across, and this week we're talking about why it was so successful and how we might be able to leverage its framing to improve other social outcomes.

Speaking of social outcomes, the featured job this week is with a fast-growing digital consultancy that helps the government improve delivery of social services – kind of important if you want taxpayer money to have the most impact. I'm also dedicating the resource of the week to a few companies who are tackling the amount of single-use plastic in your home, from food to household cleaning to medicine.

~ Greg

What we're reading

Flint, Michigan's Rx Kids program that provided financial support to all expectant mothers led to fewer premature births and lower NICU admissions without the stigma normally associated with cash transfer programs. (The Guardian)

• We've talked before about universal basic income programs, and this has shades of that type of policy. Flint gave every mother $1,500 during pregnancy plus $500 per month for one year after giving birth.
  • It's easy to see how this could make things easier on families and improve health outcomes, but the results are still impressive for taxpayers at large: the city saved $6.2 million in annual healthcare costs.
• The program is thought to be the first community-wide cash transfer program in the United States, and it is so well-advertised and so popular that literally everyone who was eligible took advantage of it.
  • That enrollment rate – yes, it's actually 100% enrollment – is double that of traditional programs like WIC, the USDA's Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.
  • Part of what has made Rx Kids so successful is its universal access. Every expectant mother is eligible regardless of income level, and that also eliminates much of the stigma.
• We actually saw hints of that sort of universal support in the last election cycle. Both presidential candidates campaigned on expanding tax credits for families with newborns, suggesting that there's common ground to be found here.
  • The framing matters though. Welfare is sometimes treated like a dirty word, like helping out those who are less fortunate is predominantly a failure of the individual.
  • One could argue that we should deploy financial support only to those who need it, but I would offer that as long as the government is saving money – millions of dollars, remember – it's still a return on investment.
  • You can almost throw the moral imperative out the window: when everyone benefits and it saves money, it's much easier to drive political consensus.
• Makes me wonder if we can reframe the broader social safety net, or key aspects of it, as a rising tide that lifts all boats.

Job of the week

If you've ever been to a government website, chances are you've felt like you were a time traveler experiencing the web as it was 20 years ago. Government websites have an enormous impact on people's lives though, and thankfully there are companies working to make them better. One of them is Skylight – they're a digital consultancy helping the government do a better job of offering public services through technology.

You can find a bunch of opportunities to support their mission, whether you're in sales, recruiting, engineering, operations, and more. I have worked in the defense industry for over 15 years on both the government and private sector sides, and there are few things as rewarding as public service. This is a great place to make an impact – check out the job board for a full list of opportunities.

Community roundup

• The first wave-based electric power project in the United States became operational last week. (Forbes)
  • This is a demonstrator project, not a commercial-scale project, but it nonetheless represents another push to capture electricity using ocean waves. The idea is relatively simple: as the waves move up and down, the floaters drive a hydraulic cylinder to spin a turbine.
• From my perspective, one of the potential downsides is also one of the potential benefits: this is mounted onshore, so you need land area to support it – the flip side is that you can tap into the grid more easily since you don't need to run cables or use other methods to transfer energy from offshore.
• New Zealand has set a goal to eradicate invasive species by 2050, and everyday citizens are volunteering to help, including setting traps on their property. (NPR)
  • Invasive species have wiped out 62 native bird species and put 80% of the remaining species at risk. This is a major conservation effort on the order of millions of animals, and part of what sets it apart from others is the civic engagement.
  • I started to wonder why that has been successful so far – imagine all Americans coming together for a conservation effort, and you can see why this would be a moonshot – and then I remembered how important birds are to the New Zealand public.
  • They have a competition for Bird of the Year that was hijacked for its entertainment value by John Oliver, whose bird of choice, the pūteketeke, won "Bird of the Century" a few years ago. It is organized by Forest & Bird, and coincidentally, voting for 2025 is now open.
• The Canadian wildfires in 2023, whose smoke drifted into the United States and as far away as Europe, killed 82,000 people according to a new study published in Nature last week. (The Guardian)
  • That's rather significant when you consider the frequency with which wildfires break out. At issue is the resulting air pollution and the PM2.5 particles that are small enough to pass from the lungs to the bloodstream where they can move to critical areas in the body.

Civic corner

• Somewhat similar to our featured story this week, New Mexico announced that it will become the first state to offer universal child care. (The 74)
  • The change goes into effect on November 1st and is essentially extending prior programs such that it covers everybody. In the past, anyone with an income at or below 400% of the federal poverty level was covered, but if you made more than that, you still paid the full child care costs.
  • The state says it should save the average family around $12,000 per year. The money to support the child care costs comes from the Land Grant Permanent Fund which is based on profits from oil and gas revenues.
• Project Nexus was completed last month, the solar project that is installed over a canal in California's agricultural region. (Grist)
  • It's one of the first canal-solar projects in the U.S., while Arizona is pursuing its third array.
  • The concept is to deploy solar and shade the canal to reduce water loss due to evaporation. In turn, the water helps keep solar panels cool, which improves their output.
• The EPA has proposed eliminating the requirement for the largest industrial facilities to report their greenhouse gas emissions. (NYT)
  • If you can't measure it, you can't fix it. We saw similar behavior from a state government, Louisiana, when we talked about No. 142: Community Air Monitoring.
  • What surprises me, however, is the response from the American Petroleum Institute. They generally champion fewer restrictions on their industry, but they are saying that “the oil and gas industry has a long track record of reporting greenhouse gas emissions to a variety of stakeholders, and we remain committed to doing so in a transparent and accurate way.”
  • That signals to me that the data has value on the private market, not just for the public good. Perhaps we have reason to be optimistic that some amount of accountability will remain in place.

Hot job opportunities

• Public Training Manager – The Trevor Project – Remote
• VP, Engineering – Strive Health – Denver, CO
• Development Writer – Ocean Conservancy – Washington, DC
• Product and B2B Communications Manager – Mill – San Bruno, CA
• Product Manager – Affect – Remote
• Senior Manager, Digital Marketing – Burton – Burlington, VT
• Software Engineer – EdReports – Remote
• Senior Data Product Manager – Crisis Text Line – Remote
• Director, Forward Defense Initiative – Atlantic Council – Washington, DC
• Senior Salesforce Consultant – BackOffice Thinking – Remote

Resource of the week

I felt inspired to include a couple of shopping resources this week after reading about the origins of the chasing arrows symbol on plastic packaging – not good, it turns out, and you'll find the link to that story at the end of the newsletter.

One trend that I like a lot is the idea of refillable household staples, whether you're talking about foods, cleaning supplies, or medicines. Typically we're talking about reducing single-use plastics: refills come in packaging that is biodegradable or recyclable, and you simply empty the refill into an existing container at home. Here are three options to check out, and you'll find plenty of other companies if you turn to your favorite search engine for ideas:

• Blueland is a common stop for household products like glass cleaner, laundry detergent, and hand soap that start as concentrated tablets and dissolve in water.
• You might recognize re_ grocery from a prior newsletter. They're a grocery store where you bring your own containers to refill with foods and household products.
• Lastly, Cabinet sells refills for common medicines like pain and allergy relief through Amazon and Target.

Test your knowledge

Last week, I asked about a country that became the first to enshrine constitutional rights for nature. That country is Ecuador, and they adopted a new Constitution in 2008.

Naturally, I was curious whether they were the last. Far from it, since there are 24 countries that have created nature's rights laws. Various cities and counties in the United States have done so as well, including Pittsburgh and Toledo.

This week, we'll turn our attention to a Nobel Prize winner whose work contributed to the Green Revolution:

Norman Borlaug was an agriculturist who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in reducing famine around the world. What crop was he known for?

Email me your guess, and I'll send one lucky winner a couple of One Work stickers!

I am struck by a story of how the chasing arrows symbol came to be used on plastics, which was never intended to suggest they could be recycled. I knew many recycling facilities can't handle all types of plastics, but count me surprised that the symbology was misleading from the outset.