War on Poverty

Matthews, Dylan. “Everything You Need to Know About the War On Poverty.”

 The Washington  Post. The Washington Post. 8 January 2014. Web. 28

February 2016.

This article by Dylan Matthews is an informational article that gives background and statistics about “The War on Poverty”. The first section gives a brief explanation stating that this “war” started around 50 years ago by Lyndon Johnson, gives a brief definition and states that either you really thought this thing was great or it was a catastrophe. The next section gives an overview of the programs started in this movement such as; The Social Security Amendments of 1965, Food Stamp Act of 1964, The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, and The Elementary and Secondary Education Act put into law in 1965. The third section talks about why this war was started when it was. The fourth section shows that technically this “war” isn’t over due to the fact that a lot of the programs are still in actions. The fifth section shows a graph in which it doesn’t look like poverty has been reduced but explains that through the programs initiated it actually has been reduced. The sixth section talks about that due to the official poverty rate people don’t see the good this movement had. Finally the seventh and last section explains what the people of america can do to make more of an impact, to tip the scales and to ultimately win the "War on Poverty"

First of all I know a lot of people will might use this article, and for a while I looked for another one but this one had what seemed like the least bias and the most statistics and historical back ground. While this “war” has its downsides which this article does little to shine light on, and the bias is obviously skewed toward a more positive light, it does a good job at giving a basic understanding on the reasoning, time line, programs and overall impact of “The War on Poverty". Through all of my research this article gave the most information and was the most helpful.