War on Poverty

Fifty years ago today, President Lyndon Johnson gave his first State of the Union address.

Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope -- some because of their poverty, and some because of their color, and all too many because of both. Our task is to help replace their despair with opportunity.

This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America. I urge this Congress and all Americans to join with me in that effort.

 President Reagan later declared that the war had been lost.  But there is evidence of progress.

Paul Krugman makes the point that persistent poverty is caused by high inequality of incomes. Republicans want people to get jobs, but low income jobs aren't enough to raise people out of poverty.  The United States is much richer than 50 years ago, but most of that wealth has gone to the top.

And so the middle class is in danger of disappearing.  Lynn Stuart Parramore offers a new anti-poverty agenda:

1. Make the rich pay their fair share by ending unfair tax breaks.
2. Expand Social Security, as Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others have demanded.
3. Protect people from going hopelessly into debt through medical expenses. Obamacare has failed to put a tight lid on potential total medical costs. Eventually, we must join the civilized world with single payer healthcare.
4. Increase state-supported education. It’s absurd that people have to go into debt just to pay for their educations.
5. Strengthen regulation so irresponsible companies do not rob ordinary Americans.
6. Restore the rights of workers, like collective bargaining and protection from wage theft.
7. Understand that austerity policies do not work, and only exacerbate economic woes.
8. Aggressively attack unemployment and remember the lesson learned in the Great Depression: when the private sector can’t come up with jobs, the government must fill the breach.
9. Protect the reproductive rights of women.
10. Protect civil rights, such as access to voting, in places where such rights are under attack.

Update (July 2):  A Census Bureau report, "Changes in Areas With Concentrated Poverty: 2000 to 2010" shows that the number and proportion of people living in poverty has increased during that period.

Update (July 14, 2018):  Jeff Stein and Tracy Jan present what seems to be a new Republican tactic to attack spending on social programs.

The White House in a report this week declared the War on Poverty “largely over and a success,” arguing that few Americans are truly poor — only about 3 percent of the population — and that the booming economy is the best path upward for those who remain in poverty.

The new messaging comes as the White House and Republicans in Congress pursue their long-held goal of adding work requirements for recipients of food stamps, Medicaid and housing subsidies.

It depends on how you want to define "poverty"--problem solved!

The most recent census data says that in 2016, 12.7 percent of Americans — about 41 million people — were in poverty compared with 19 percent in 1964. A separate census measure, known as the “supplemental” poverty rate, takes into account federal assistance flowing to households as well as regional differences in cost of living. By that measure, about 14 percent of Americans are in poverty.

Rather than measuring resources coming into households, conservative scholars prefer to use “consumption” statistics that rely on surveys of how much people report spending. Using the spending measure, poverty is closer to the 3 percent figure [von Clownstick's] economic council used, said Robert Rector, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Poverty measured by consumption has fallen dramatically since the 1990s, while data from the Census Bureau shows poverty remaining relatively flat.