War on Poverty

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The War on Poverty was a campaign of social and economic development in the United States during the 1960's.

The term was first introduced by Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. The legislation was designed in response to the poverty affecting over 35 million Americans as of that year, which was a highly political topic during the time.

"This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America."

- Lyndon B. Johnson

Michael Harrington's book The Other America, 1962, is sometimes credited with being a catalyst in this moment.

1 Major initiatives
2 Historical Notes
3 Results
4 External links
5 References

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Major initiatives

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Historical Notes

The U.S. government continues to use the antiquated Orshansky measure of the poverty line, a measure which is only adjusted for inflation, and not adjusted for the actual cost of living against median income. In the 1960s the average cost of living was a mere 30% of individual income, today the cost of living averages 50% of household income. Because of this skew in measuring the poverty line it is believed that the current U.S. Census statistics published could actually be closer to 50 million Americans.

The 'War on Poverty' was enacted in response to hard economic times which saw a poverty rate of around 25%. However, President Johnson's 'War on Poverty' speech was delivered at a time of recovery and some viewed it as an effort to get Congress to authorize social welfare programs. The poverty level had fallen from 22.4% in 1959 to 19% in 1964 when the War on Poverty was announced.

The concept of a war on poverty waned after the 1960s. Deregulation, growing criticism of the welfare state, and an ideological shift to reducing federal aid to impovered people in the 1980s and 1990s culminated in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.

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Results

Since 1965 America has never seen more than a 4% single-year drop in the poverty rate. Poverty saw its lowest point (11.1%) in 1973 around the same time America and other nations adopted fiat money and abolished the gold standard. Since 1973 the poverty line and the cost of welfare has become higher than it was in 1965. Again the Orshansky method of measuring poverty not being updated for modern costs requires emphasis.

Poverty among Americans between ages 18-64 has fallen only marginally since 1966, from 10.5% then to 10.1% today. Poverty has significantly fallen among Americans under 18 years old from 23% in 1964 to 16.3% today. The most dramatic decrease in poverty was among Americans over 65, which fell from 28.5% in 1966 to 10.1% today.

Today, more than 35.9 million, or 12.1% of Americans (as of 2004) including 12.1 million children, are considered to live in poverty with an average growth of almost 1 million per year.

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