Asset Ownership Project
The Asset Ownership Project seeks to empower individuals and families by freeing them from dependence on government handouts and making them “owners.” Ownership gives people the independence, as well as the responsibility, to take more control of their lives.
Cascade’s Asset Ownership Project seeks to alleviate poverty by altering faulty and inefficient government programs into asset building programs. This project focuses on giving workers ownership of their unemployment benefits and retirement funds. Also, through the Wheels to Wealth project, Cascade has sought to increase personal wealth by helping to increase car ownership among low-income people.
Publications
Testimony to House Committee on unemployment accounts
Click here to listen to the testimony. Christina Martin’s testimony to the House Interim Committee on Business and Labor starts at 41:00. Co-Chair Garrett, ... read more
Government Anesthesia
Nobody likes pain, but we need it. This may sound counterintuitive or cruel when you are suffering with an injury or illness, but severe dangers ... read more
Taking Work Personally: How Individual Accounts Reward Personal Responsibility
Recently, I had a long conversation with an owner of a bakery near Medford, Oregon. He told me of the problems his company faced due ... read more
New Oregon Law Okays Pocketing Other People’s Money
Even the most casual football-watcher has to have noticed the eye-catching ads run by a Fortune 100 company featuring small, courteous things done for others. ... read more
Education Savings Accounts Multiply Options for Kids
Kids do better when their parents have the freedom to choose the right kind of educational program for them, without regard to whether the program ... read more
Personal Health Accounts Empower Medicaid Recipients
As Michael Sherraden pointed out 20 years ago in his book Assets and the Poor: A New American Welfare Policy, the key to getting ahead ... read more
Oregon’s $392 Million Unemployment Mistake
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, almost $19 billion in state unemployment benefits were paid in error over the last three years. Oregon paid ... read more
Extending Unemployment Benefits: Good Intentions, Bad Results
Last Thursday, President Obama asked Congress once again to extend unemployment benefits, allowing workers to continue receiving benefits for up to almost two years. His ... read more
Unemployment Insurance, Savings Accounts or Both? A Way Forward for Oregon’s Workers
One silver lining of the burst housing bubble has been the increase in the personal savings rate. For many years prior to the recession, analysts ... read more
Ready, Fire, Aim, for Oregon’s Payday Lending Policy
By Christopher Robinson In 2006 and 2007 the Oregon legislature passed two bills which significantly curtailed the ability of traditional “brick and mortar” payday lenders ... read more
