Wednesday, February 19, 2014

War on Poverty: 50th anniversary

Significant news attention in recent weeks has been devoted to the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty, declared by Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union speech, January 8, 1964. The War, the centerpiece of Johnson's Great Society, was spearheaded by a series of programs providing health, food, and education and job training assistance. Although largely dismantled during the Reagan and Clinton administrations, such programs appeared to have modest effects in reducing poverty prevalence over the period.

For coverage examples, see New York Times re articles, graphics, interactive map, and extensive collection of stories at American RadioWorks.

1 comment:

  1. This shows how so much talk is meaningless, that the more things change the more they stay the same. With growing automation, our whole ethos about work must change. As we become more efficient, we become more wasteful, and what we are wasting is the wealth of the capacity of men when basic needs are supplied and full potential reached. Men who develop, really master something, tend towards realizing development is a process, and the gift of life, thus the way and the means towards this, is a basic income guarantee, because the wealth created has been done by generations of men, not one figure head saying he/she is the creator- this is common sense. The solution to poverty in the present system, is to give all the means to discover the gift of life. If we deny the right to life in another, we deny it in ourselves, and perhaps this is why poverty exists, it is a reflection of our own ignorance and accepted impoverishment as we fear that which is the way out, to walk ourselves into self mastery, realizing that we need each other to see our way to this.

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