Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Beyond the Welfare State
Foundation for Economic Education ^ | Thursday, October 16, 2025 | Nathan Mayo

Posted on 10/16/2025 12:30:20 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

How civil society can succeed where welfare has failed.

Since the launch of the War on Poverty in the 1960s, the rate of those living in poverty, as defined by the US government, has stubbornly persisted. Yet before that, the American poverty rate was dropping fast. It was around 32% in 1950, but postwar prosperity and a booming job market lifted thousands out of destitution, bringing it to 12.8% by the time the War’s programs took effect in 1968. Yet in the intervening half-century, it has never dropped below 10%. This is not for lack of effort. Per capita government spending on the poor has gone from $2,701 at the outset to $29,214 today (adjusted for inflation).

Some point out that standards of living among the poor have risen, if you consider welfare benefits, which the official poverty measure excludes. While they are correct—material well-being has improved—there is ample reason to understand that poverty persists as a real problem, rather than a data artifact.

Case in point: About 34% of children born in poverty will remain there throughout their lives. For no substantial portion of their lives will they produce enough economic value to provide for themselves without subsidy. Furthermore, many of the maladies associated with chronic poverty are worsening:

These...

(Excerpt) Read more at fee.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 10/16/2025 12:30:20 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

If we can’t get Congress to outright abolish agencies then the details matter little.

We’re just re-arranging deck chairs on the titanic.

Yes its correct and its good to be correct but then we’re standing on a plateau while nothing happens, nothing changes.

Congress must abolish something.


2 posted on 10/16/2025 12:42:53 PM PDT by ProgressingAmerica (We cannot vote our way out of these problems. The only way out is to activist our way out.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Per capita government spending on the poor has gone to $29,214 today.

__________________________

Funny, poverty level is now defined as 15,650 per single person.
Yet, we are spending 29,214 for that person. A lot more than the poverty level!
Obviously, most of it is guv. waste!


3 posted on 10/16/2025 12:45:06 PM PDT by AZJeep (sane )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: AZJeep

It’s wages and benefits for government workers to “administrate” the government programs.

They all have degrees in whatever “studies” that render them unemployable at actual productive jobs.

The Education/Government complex is far worse than the Industrial/Military complex.


4 posted on 10/16/2025 12:52:11 PM PDT by Valpal1 (Not even the police are safe from the police!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Our entire government is based on welfare at this point. To individuals, to the defense industry and corporations, and to practically every nation on earth in foreign aid.


5 posted on 10/16/2025 12:52:15 PM PDT by DesertRhino (When men on the chessboard, get up and tell you where to go…)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

And last but not least, mass immigration legal and illegal, combined with a welfare state is complete insanity.


6 posted on 10/16/2025 12:54:31 PM PDT by DesertRhino (When men on the chessboard, get up and tell you where to go…)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Valpal1

Yes, I wonder, how much of that $29,214 will actually reach that poor person?


7 posted on 10/16/2025 1:00:29 PM PDT by AZJeep (sane )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: AZJeep

Medicaid is much bigger than TANF, WIC, EBT, SEC8, etal.
But in all these programs there is waste, fraud, abuse-WFA.

Deloitte and its IES Integrated Eligibility System is the poster child for WFA. Step 1 is to cut out the welfare pimps like Deloitte. Deloitte IES is in 25 states, both Red and Blue states. Deloitte has other WFA (Pathways in GA). But IES is at the center to make WFA possible.


8 posted on 10/16/2025 1:21:17 PM PDT by spintreebob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: spintreebob

Cloward Priven strategy, straight from the 60’s radicals, to overwhelm the existing social structures and safety nets.

These things, welfare, illegal immigration and the Government agencies supporting these need to be demolished and the people luving off the government grift sent to prison.

It isn’t good enough to win elections…….. the structures must be destroyed.


9 posted on 10/16/2025 2:41:31 PM PDT by SteelPSUGOP (UGHT)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum
https://www.amazon.com/Mutual-Aid-Welfare-State-Fraternal/dp/0807848417/ref=sr_1_2?s=books


10 posted on 10/17/2025 12:04:49 AM PDT by 4Liberty (One person’s Socialism is another’s neighborliness. -Tim Walz)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson