When I looked up the phrase “War on Poverty,” all but maybe
a very few things that came up were involved with Lyndon B. Johnson’s State of
the Union address. He declared “War on poverty” because of the large percentage
of poverty in the United States during his presidential term in the 60’s. He
wanted to help prevent and eliminate it. In the bill, many programs were formed
to help people in poverty such as, Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps, which
are still used today. Yes, LBJ’s war on poverty succeeded in created many programs
still used today that have spent billions of dollars aiding lower income Americans,
but poverty is still at a high. Poverty has only gone down from 19 to 15
percent since it was declared. Some believe that the government programs allow
people to rely on them too much so the poverty rate doesn’t go anywhere. That
it wasted billions of dollars on people who don’t deserve it. Of course there
are going to be people who disagree, but whether people think it was a failure
or not, the war on poverty was declared to help people in poverty, and it is
still trying to do so. The war has not been won, but it has not been lost. I
think that the war on poverty will continue to go on for a long time. Changes
in poverty rates have been little, but at least there has been some. For example,
“In the decade following the program's introduction, poverty rates in the U.S.
dropped to their lowest level since comprehensive records began in 1958, from
17.3% in 1964 to 11.1% in 1973.” Even though poverty still exists, it is a huge
factor in our country’s society and economy and it will hopefully continue to go down
slowly but surely.
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ReplyDeleteYeah I did not see anything on TRACS to focus my comment on so I'm just going to go on about what I read and my opinions.
ReplyDeleteI just feel like as long as the United States is a hugely populated country ( #3 country in the world), there will always be poverty. There is no way you can fit 318 Million U.S citizens in a country and have everyone live in a good standards. I mean look at China; a country with over 1 Billion people. China's poverty rate is extremely higher than the United States and that's because there is too much people. Same goes for countries like India and Indonesia.
The government can create all the social welfare programs they want but unless the population is lowered or just constant, poverty rates will always stay the same. Sweden is looked upon as a Utopia in the European world, but Sweden has 9 million people living there. New York City combined with Los Angeles have nearly 12 Million people. It is apples to oranges comparing these countries. The War on Povery is a losing battle and there will always be a medium percentage.
Elli and both looked up the term” war on poverty” and got very similar results on what this phrase means. The war on poverty refers to a time in the world when poverty was seriously effecting the citizens, in their health, and freedom to do what they want and enjoy life. When we look at the war on poverty which was addressed first by Lyndon b Johnson at the state of the union, we notice that this war is designed to help American citizens who need it, the war on poverty includes programs like the social security amendments, the food stamp act of 1964, the economic opportunity act of 1964, and the elementary and secondary education act of 1965. All of these programs were designed with the intention better the lives of Americans who are dealing with poverty. The civil right movement also played a roll in the war against poverty with groups like NAACP were prominent allies of the Johnson administration in the push for economic opportunity act. Many of the programs that wee created to fight the war on poverty are still around to this day such as medicade, Medicare, food stamps, helping many Americans still to this day. Statistics show that these programs actually did play a major roll in reducing the nations poverty
ReplyDeleteBasically the war on poverty is a phrase to represent the sets of government programs designed to attack the inclination of poor Americans. Brought up by president LBJ, he thought it would really help and it had the right intention--for about 10 years then poverty rate dropped from 19 to 11. Just like Elli said, medicaid, medicare,and food stamps are the programs found today too these which helped many Americans find their lives more meaningful. Although, so far poverty has been winning. Poor Americans who are receiving aid must still have the same mindset since now its back up to 15% in over 50 years. They just aren't doing enough for themselves in order to surpass their own level of poverty. It takes two to make a child,likewise it takes the help of the government and the minds of the poor to turn this around. The aid provided is probably questioned by many perhaps due to the fact that the poor is taking advantage of it and not getting up off their assess to change their lives. That's why many people come to believe it's a waste of money. Although, war on poverty is linked to helping certain subgroups more than others. Restrictions on these aids were also implemented which didn't allow other people who didn't meet requirements get aid.
ReplyDeleteEric McWhinnie. "5 Reasons Why We're Losing the War on Poverty." USA Today. Gannett, 2014. Web. 01 Mar. 2016.
ReplyDeleteThe senior editor of the Cheat Sheet Eric McWhinnie in his "5 Reasons Why We're Losing the War on Poverty" explained why war on poverty is losing. He starts with the fact that we are still far from winning the war on poverty because the official poverty rate in the United States recently declined for the first time in seven years and the year-over-year change was less than one percentage point in each of the four major regions of US. Based on the fact and statistics, he begins to list reasons that cause this. First, he states that the real median household income was 8% lower in 2013 than 2007 because people are still trying to catch up from the recent recession. Second, he blames the wealth inequality that is increasing in the US. He also pointed out the employment-to-population ratio recently matched its lowest level since 2008 and this ratio will likely have difficulty improving significantly in the short-term. Furthermore, he thinks there is an alarming amount of money is still being spent on food stamp even though the positive is that the number of individuals on food stamps peaked nearly two years. Lastly, wages and salaries as a percentage of GDP have been declining for over four decades, he claims.
In his article, Eric McWhinnie has used many statistics from institutions such as United States Census Bureau, which is the principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System to support his argument. Therefore, the numbers he has in his article should be real and authoritative. That makes his argument and conclusion more trustworthy.
Jencks, Christopher. "The War on Poverty: Was It Lost?" The New York Review of Books. 2 Apr. 2015. Web. 01 Mar. 2016.
ReplyDeleteNewsletter, The War on Poverty: Was it Lost? By Christopher Jencks is an article expressing and explain the meaning and results of “war on poverty’ in America up to 2015. Jencks starts his newsletter stating how War on poverty started with former President Lyndon Johnson. Jencks states that both the fight for poverty and the Vietnam were failures in Johnson’s precedency that have become large factors in our government from 1964 to today. Upon poverty being an issue in our country that did not go away, “antipoverty programs” were developed. However, Jencks persists that these “antipoverty programs” did not necessarily decrease poverty, but in a way controlled poverty. Jencks mention that the Census Bureau give a chart every September showing the decline in poverty but he suggests how can we really know for sure that this chart is accurate. He then has a chart that shows what reductions in poverty programs need to be made to effectively decrease poverty as in 1964. Jencks argues that after 50 years the promise given to reduce poverty has not been fully fulfilled.
Jencks uses various statistics such as the chart of the decrease in poverty and history as what has happened since Johnson’s presidency to argue that war on poverty as not been solved but has a cap placed on it. Our government knows that poverty is an issue, resulting in assistance but not a solution for poverty to be preventable. This article is useful because it would provide some evidence to the argument, even giving a suggestion to the opposing side. The article is factual yet opinionated, though there are facts of what has been done and what should be done he only suggests options that aren’t working. As society and the economy are different from 1964 that must be taken into consideration when making a comparison.
Matthews, Dylan. "Everything You Need to Know about the War on Poverty." The Washington Post. N.p., 08 Jan. 2014. Web. 01 Mar. 2016.
ReplyDeleteI found similar information while looking up "War on Poverty". The online article I read described the War on Poverty by saying, it refers to initiatives proposed by President Lyndon Banes Johnson to help the poor, and eventually prevent poverty. The four main programs from that came from this were The Social Security Amendments of 1965, The Food Stamp Act of 1964, The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, and The Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The War on Poverty started because Johnson had a personal interest with poverty and the The Other America by Michael Harringtgon and an essay by Dwight McDonald were published. In the end, the article goes on to talk about how we could fight poverty, whit ideas such as: cutting taxes on the poor, raising the minimum wage and a couple more ideas.
Many people have mixed emotions on this topic. Some people believe it is a waste of money for people who “don’t deserve it” or are lazy. Some people think it was good to help the people in need. Although the program might not have done as well as expected it did help a little. And it can continue to help little by little, it is better than not trying to help at all. The programs that started from it, such as, medicade, medicare and social security, still used today, continue to help many people out.
Matthews,Dylan."Everything You Need to Know about the War on Poverty." The Washington Post. N.p., 08 Jan. 2014. Web. 01 Mar. 2016. Out of all the other articles i skimmed through , I found this one to be the most interesting and informative. It includes who what when and why and thats why i chose this one. President Lyndon B. Johnson initiated this movement and it included various components. It talks about ways that we could improve the poverty situation.The programs included The Social Security Amendments of 1965, The Food Stamp Act of 1964, The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, and The Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
ReplyDeleteJohnson's statement on poverty reads like this:"Our aim is not only to relieve the symptoms of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it." Why was it useful? The program was useful at the time because it showed that someone had a vision and a plan to stop one of America's biggest problems.... Poverty. Johnson faced criticism from many people because they felt like the programs were a waste of time because it was providing funds for people who didnt deserve them. Others were more acceptive towards it and were willing to support the idea.
Rector, Robert. "The War on Poverty: 50 Years of Failure." Washington Times. The Washington Times, 19 Sept. 2014. Web. 02 Mar. 2016.
ReplyDeleteThe War on Poverty is about helping the economic gap in America. It talks about when the economic gap was effecting the citizens of the United States. It effects them economically, socially and personally. Because of the huge gap people are being effected through their happiness, health, and freedom. It ties people down wanting to prevent their future from being poor and going through poverty. Because they want to move up in the economic gap and it causes people to become more careless. Though there are programs to help people from those gaps it is still difficult for people to move up from it. Programs such as Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare are created to aid people through financial issues. It was purposed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to help the poor. But many are finding it to be unfair to use other’s hard earned money to help those who are undeserving.