How the War on Poverty Was Lost

Fifty years and $20 trillion later, LBJ's goal to help the poor become self-supporting has failed.

Article by Robert Rector, WSJ, 1-8-14. Excerpts:

"The federal government currently runs more than 80 means-tested welfare programs that provide cash, food, housing, medical care and targeted social services to poor and low-income Americans. Government spent $916 billion on these programs in 2012 alone, and roughly 100 million Americans received aid from at least one of them, at an average cost of $9,000 per recipient. (That figure doesn't include Social Security or Medicare benefits.) Federal and state welfare spending, adjusted for inflation, is 16 times greater than it was in 1964. If converted to cash, current means-tested spending is five times the amount needed to eliminate all official poverty in the U.S.

LBJ promised that the war on poverty would be an "investment" that would "return its cost manifold to the entire economy." But the country has invested $20.7 trillion in 2011 dollars over the past 50 years. What does America have to show for its investment? Apparently, almost nothing: The official poverty rate persists with little improvement."

"the typical American living below the poverty level in 2013 lives in a house or apartment that is in good repair, equipped with air conditioning and cable TV. His home is larger than the home of the average nonpoor French, German or English man. He has a car, multiple color TVs and a DVD player. More than half the poor have computers and a third have wide, flat-screen TVs. The overwhelming majority of poor Americans are not undernourished and did not suffer from hunger for even one day of the previous year."

"The root "causes" of poverty have not shrunk but expanded as family structure disintegrated and labor-force participation among men dropped."

"In 1963, 6% of American children were born out of wedlock. Today the number stands at 41%."

"children raised in the growing number of single-parent homes are four times more likely to be living in poverty than children reared by married parents of the same education level"

"Children raised by single parents are three times more likely to end up in jail and 50% more likely to be poor as adults."