A small comment and one that may seem cynical but is consistent with a lifetime of observation? Welfare schemes have no object of reducing poverty; indeed they are usually designed to increase it. When you pay people for being poor you are creating demand for poverty and people will eagerly meet that demand. That end purpose is to increase government, its bureaucracy, and its power, increase the pretexts for exorbitant budgets and concomitant taxes and in the process make sinecure jobs for your political supporters. Measure by these realistic objective the War on Poverty has been a resounding success.
When he initiated his "Great Society", LBJ created a permanent lower class that is growing more restless and violent daily. Attack on the police are now reported at least on a weekly basis and corrupt District Attorneys are seeing that these criminals are returned to society immediately.
The Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate fell steadily from 2008 to 2016, from around 66% to roughly 63% when Trump policies reversed that trend...then Covid policies slashed participation to 60% "recovering" to just 62% now, under Biden, where it has stalled out. BLS data show (as of Nov 2022) 100 million Americans not actively participating in the workforce...of which 39 million are age 16-54. Around 6 million of those "want a job". So, not counting those age 55+ in the retirement window, that's 33 million Americans who could work, but don't "want a job". Presumably they don't "want a job" because they can afford not to work - that benefits of not working outweigh the benefits from a job. Subtracting out the 16-24 age group, that's 16 million, we still have 17 million Americans age 25-54 not participating in the workforce because they "don't want a job".
17 million people are paid to sit on the sidelines and not participate in our workforce, because for them to do so, they'd be worse off. That's what your "War on Poverty" hath wrought.
A small comment and one that may seem cynical but is consistent with a lifetime of observation? Welfare schemes have no object of reducing poverty; indeed they are usually designed to increase it. When you pay people for being poor you are creating demand for poverty and people will eagerly meet that demand. That end purpose is to increase government, its bureaucracy, and its power, increase the pretexts for exorbitant budgets and concomitant taxes and in the process make sinecure jobs for your political supporters. Measure by these realistic objective the War on Poverty has been a resounding success.
When he initiated his "Great Society", LBJ created a permanent lower class that is growing more restless and violent daily. Attack on the police are now reported at least on a weekly basis and corrupt District Attorneys are seeing that these criminals are returned to society immediately.
The Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate fell steadily from 2008 to 2016, from around 66% to roughly 63% when Trump policies reversed that trend...then Covid policies slashed participation to 60% "recovering" to just 62% now, under Biden, where it has stalled out. BLS data show (as of Nov 2022) 100 million Americans not actively participating in the workforce...of which 39 million are age 16-54. Around 6 million of those "want a job". So, not counting those age 55+ in the retirement window, that's 33 million Americans who could work, but don't "want a job". Presumably they don't "want a job" because they can afford not to work - that benefits of not working outweigh the benefits from a job. Subtracting out the 16-24 age group, that's 16 million, we still have 17 million Americans age 25-54 not participating in the workforce because they "don't want a job".
17 million people are paid to sit on the sidelines and not participate in our workforce, because for them to do so, they'd be worse off. That's what your "War on Poverty" hath wrought.
https://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea38.htm