While agreeing that stating that the Great Society is the cause of the decline of the black family is not completely the case, how do you feel that the Great Society helped poor people, other than making them dependant on the government?
Not all the Great Society programs were welfare although it seems welfare is what most people think of when they think of LBJ and 1964.
There were many programs other than welfare that were part of that legislation. For sure they were not equally effective. The Community Action programs diverted a lot of money into local communities and the results were mixed.
There were 5 or 6 other programs, e.g., Vista and Job Corps, that were helpful to many. There were conservation centers and urban centers where 16 year old kids got to see a dentist for the first time in their lives and where they learned to read and write. Most were not employable or even eligible for the military because of illiteracy when they entered the programs.
Many of the ‘kids’ had never traveled more than 20 miles from their homes. They got to see areas of the country where jobs were plentiful, in sharp contrast to their home areas, e.g. Appalachia, the reservations, where there were no jobs. IIRC there were a couple of hundred thousand young men and women in these programs.
BTW I enjoy your posts. I don’t always agree with them I find them thoughtful and well presented.