懸崖效應
在脫貧攻堅實踐中，一些地方自覺不自覺地把扶貧標準拔高，甚至不同地區之間互相攀比看誰的標準高，對貧困戶做了一些不切實際的承諾，設置的地方性考核指標明顯超過了“兩不愁三保障”標準。這些做法使得貧困戶和非貧困戶待遇差距太大，出現“懸崖效應”。一些地方對貧困村、貧困縣的退出，規定了很多硬性的驗收指標，驗收指標也存在層層加碼的問題，有些指標確實與“兩不愁三保障”，以及基本公共服務主要領域指標接近全國平均水平沒有太直接的關系。這導致為了完成這些硬性指標，一些貧困縣確實盡力而為，但是沒有量力而行，甚至不惜舉債搞貧困村建設，有的貧困村一次性就投入一兩千萬元資金，貧困村和非貧困村出現了“懸崖效應”。
對于這些問題，2018年發布的《中共中央 國務院關于打贏脫貧攻堅戰三年行動的指導意見》明確要求，脫貧攻堅要量力而行，既不能降低標準，也不能擅自拔高標準、提不切實際的目標，避免陷入“福利陷阱”，防止產生貧困村和非貧困村、貧困戶和非貧困戶待遇的“懸崖效應”，留下后遺癥。
"Abyss Consequence"
In poverty elimination, some localities have intentionally or inadvertently raised their poverty thresholds, and some have even tried to compete with others in their standards, making irrational promises to impoverished households. As a result, their local assessment norms have come to exceed the national standards for basic living needs and for access to compulsory education, basic medical services and safe housing. This has led to an unreasonable gap between poverty-stricken households and other villagers, which is known as the "abyss consequence."
Some localities have set irrational standards for poverty elimination in poor villages and poor counties, while at each level the standards are raised in evaluation. This is irrelevant to the national standards for poverty elimination and to the main indicators of basic public services. To meet such mandated requirements, some poor counties try their best, but it is beyond their actual capacity. Some even borrow funds to support their poor villages. In the worst case, 10 million to 20 million yuan has been invested in one poor village, thus creating an "abyss consequence" between poor villages and non-poor villages.
Addressing these problems, the Three-year Guideline on Winning the Battle Against Poverty, issued by the central leadership in 2018, demands that poverty elimination must be pragmatic. The standards shall neither be randomly lowered nor irrationally raised, so as to avoid the "welfare trap" and the "abyss consequence" between poor and non-poor villages and between poor and non-poor households, and other unfavorable consequences.
