The Legislature hereby finds that:

1. Americans of most economic classes are having increasing difficulty climbing the economic ladder. Fully half of all Americans have no, negligible or negative investable assets just as the price of entry to the economic mainstream, such as the cost of a house, starting a business, an adequate education, establishing a retirement account, or purchasing an automobile, is increasing;

2. Economic well-being does not come solely from income, spending, and consumption, but also requires savings, investment, and accumulation of assets, since assets can improve economic stability, connect people with a viable and hopeful future, stimulate development of human and other capital, enable people to focus and specialize, yield personal and social dividends, and enhance the welfare of offspring;

3. There is an urgent need for new means for Americans to navigate the labor market and to provide incentives and means for employment, upgrading, mobility, and retention;

4. The household savings rate of the United States lags far behind other industrial nations, presenting a barrier to economic growth. The State of Oklahoma should develop policies, such as individual development accounts, that promote higher rates of personal savings and net private domestic investment;

5. In the current fiscal environment, the State of Oklahoma should invest existing resources in high-yielding initiatives. There is reason to believe that the financial returns, including increased income, tax revenue, and decreased welfare cash assistance, of individual development accounts will far exceed the cost of investment;

6. Tens of thousands of Oklahomans continue to live in poverty and receive public assistance. Poverty is a loss of human resources, an assault on human dignity, and a drain on social and fiscal resources of this state. Traditional public assistance programs, concentrating on income and consumption, have rarely been successful in promoting and supporting the transition to economic self-sufficiency; and

7. Income-based social policy should be complemented with asset-based social policy, because while income-based policies ensure that consumption needs, including food, child care, rent, clothing, and health care, are met, asset-based policies provide the means to achieve economic self-sufficiency and climb the economic ladder.

Added by Laws 1998, c. 429, § 3, eff. Nov. 1, 1998.