“The War on Poverty” was never about ending poverty. It was about securing an undefeatable democrat majority. What was it LBJ said. Something about ‘someone’ voting for them for 200 years???
There isn’t one social program the federal government hasn’t unconstitutionally launched that hasn’t been a miserable failure. No matter. It’s never the government’s fault.
They only need more money to make their unconstitutional programs work (and BTW, to enlarge their bureaucracies).
Poverty isn't a problem in this country anymore ... it's an industry, and a huge portion of our GDP involves businesses and institutions that are built on some aspect of "fixing poverty."
All the war on poverty accomplished was to destroy family values and impoverish the entire nation. 16+ trillion dollars spent, 18 trillion dollars in the hole.
We were also the only true superpower in the world. The Soviets were a military challenge, but not an economic challenge to the US. Germany and Japan were still in the process of rebuilding.
In other words, there was not much serious competition for the United States in 1964. We were IT!
Excellent essay! Thanks for writing the truth.
The Scottish Jurist and Historian Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler published a collection of lectures in 1801. He advanced a theory of democracy based on historical observation:
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can exist only until voters discover that they can vote themselves largesses from the public treasury. From that time on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
“The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage.”
‘nuff said.
We were also the only true superpower in the world. The Soviets were a military challenge, but not an economic challenge to the US. Germany and Japan were still in the process of rebuilding.
In other words, there was not much serious competition for the United States in 1964. We were IT!
Nowadays, waiting in line for free stuff is the equivalent of “working” to the gibsmedat crowd.
Well written article, thank you.
Taxes and regulations are very definitely big deals, the root of this problem, the way the handout agencies are fed.
But corporate perfidy is the other foot. Offshoring jobs and importing workers have nothing to do with profits. Corporations are given tax break rewards for those policies because they cost so much money to implement.
No, they are about only one thing - gutting the American worker. Taking away skilled jobs by the millions. It’s economic and social sabotage, straight out.
For the 22 trillion the US government spent on the ‘war on poverty’, we could have sent men to Mars.
A certain group, THAT MUST NOT BE NAMED is a drag on the US, economically and culturally.
Time to separate...
Every time it’s tried, socialism fails. It’s inconsistent with human nature.
Actually, we declared war on Poverty and Poverty is winning
NOT going to get any better under existing system...people who don't want to work won't work. Simple as that.
If your definition is that you'll "have them (insert plural of the 'n' word here) voting DemocRAT for the next 200 years, then you'd have to conclude that it has been a resounding success.
So far.
Only 150 years to go. 'Course, if they haven't figured it out by now there's no reason to believe they'll figure it out in the next century and a half.
Liberals, socialists, communists, totalitarians seem to think their next brand of re-distribution will make all equal. It never has worked and never will. Simply, because it takes away incentive from the producers, as we all know.
I witnessed it personally in the 60's. They started their hippie communes with the best intentions, but when some didn't want to work as hard for the same communal benefits, those who did started to leave out of frustration.
Of course, the commune fell apart once the producers were gone. I laughed my non-political ass off because I knew before hand it would never work while I was working my butt off in a widget factory.
I find it amazing that the 60's hippies who are now "educators" in our higher learning institutions still believe such nonsense. You'd think they would learn after all the failed models of socialism throughout history. What's worse is that they teach that failed system to our youth. Still, they write their doctorate thesis, papers, books trying explain how great socialism is and how it will lift all boats. Pure nonsense...much like many defense attorneys do with their parsing and spin.
Someone with a great deal more insight into the way the world works than any politician, long before this foolishness started, observed, “The poor you have with you always.”
The attempt to abolish poverty was always a fool’s errand, and while succoring the poor is incumbent upon any civilization, especially a Christian civilization, the notion that state subsidies paid to the poor is the way to accomplish this overlooks the indisputable fact of economic and social life that one will have more of whatever the state chooses to subsidize.
But seriously.....how is a black man going to get a decent job?
Only about half of black males graduate from high school. High school!
Of those who make it to college, only about one in six will graduate, and that’s with affirmative action help.
And the real shocker is that according to the Sentencing Project report (August 2013), “one of every three black American males born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime”.
I don’t know the answer to my question. Do you?
Leftism always fails - economically, morally & culturally.
ALWAYS.