War on Poverty, yo

Rector, Robert, and Rachel Sheffield. "The War on Poverty After 50 Years." The Heritage Foundation. The Heritage Foundation, 14 Sept. 2014. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.

The War on Poverty After 50 Years provides background information on President Lyndon B. Johnson’s goal to reduce the cause of poverty. In 1964 president Johnson in his state of the union address stated, “This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America.” Although, data has shown has that this attempted war has actually been stagnant. In the 52 years since this declaration America has spent over 22 trillion dollars on anti-poverty programs (not including Social Security and Medicare). Compared to the definition of poverty back then, today’s imagination of being homeless and hungry is inaccurate as Rector and Sheffield bring to attention, “Only 9.5 percent of the poor live in mobile homes or trailers; 49.5 percent live in separate single-family houses or townhouses, and 40 percent live in apartments.” The poor in America based on data has also shown that many poor families have cable, air conditioning, a car, internet access etc. Many people argue that because the living conditions of the poor have gotten better, the War on Poverty has been a success. Although, this is not true according to the article because it does not target President Johnson’s original goal which was to prevent poverty and promote self-sufficiency. Because of the tremendous increase in welfare programs, the poor rely heavily on these government “handouts.” These welfare programs promote not being married as well. This leads to a dangerous trend of the replacement of husbands with welfare and the increase of single mothers. In conclusion, The War on Poverty has been extremely unsuccessful.

            Robert Rector is a senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation. Rachel Sheffield is a political analyst who works for DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society. This information is useful because it is important to know of the issues regarding America and poverty. These issues directly affect every citizen whether you are poor or not. The authors of this article have not firsthand experienced poverty but they have done extensive research on the subject. This article communicates its main idea by providing data and explanation for the failure of President Johnson’s plan. In turn it highlights the real problem, welfare. Although, I believe this article carefully chose the numbers it did and did not include to exaggerate the idea that America’s poor lives in comfort.