War on Poverty

Examples of War on Poverty in the following topics:

• "The War on Poverty"

  • The War on Poverty continued the plan of the Kennedy administration, with the goal of eliminating hunger and deprivation from American life.
  • The War thus focused on education, job training, and community development.
  • The War on Poverty began with a $1 billion appropriation in 1964 and spent another $2 billion in the following two years.
  • The impact of the War on Poverty is debated.
  • The popularity of the War on Poverty waned after the 1960s.

• Assessing the Great Society

  • Since the launch of the Great Society and the War on Poverty, there has been a contentious debate over its impact.
  • The War on Poverty coincided with a reduction in poverty rates.
  • The poverty rate declined further after the implementation of the War on Poverty, hitting a low point of 11.1% in 1973.
  • Observers debate the impact of the Great Society and War on Poverty on poverty rates and the economy.
  • Assess the impact of the Great Society and the War on Poverty

• The Great Society

  • Since the launch of the Great Society and the War on Poverty, there has been a contentious debate over its impact.
  • The War on Poverty coincided with a reduction in poverty rates.
  • The United States government began keeping comprehensive records of the poverty rate in 1958, and the poverty rate had been declining when the War on Poverty was launched in 1964 – it fell from 22.4% in 1959 to 19% in 1964.
  • The poverty rate declined further after the implementation of the War on Poverty, hitting a low point of 11.1% in 1973.
  • Even noting the decline in poverty rates, there is still disagreement about the effects of the War on Poverty and the Great Society.

• The Working Poor

  • The working poor are working people whose incomes fall below a given poverty line.
  • The working poor are working people whose incomes fall below a given poverty line.
  • Census Bureau's official definition of poverty, 8.8 million US families were below the poverty line (11.1% of all families).
  • Of these families, 5.19 million, or 58.9%, had at least one person who was classified as working
  • Within the United States, since the start of the War on Poverty in the 1960s, scholars and policymakers on both ends of the political spectrum have paid an increasing amount of attention to the working poor.

• Measuring Poverty

  • The UN's measure of global poverty based on whether or not a person earns $1.25/day (adjusted for international purchasing power) is a measure of absolute poverty -- it is based on whether or not a person has the bare minimum to meet their material needs.
  • The European Union's poverty threshold is based on relative poverty -- it measures how far below median income a person is, rather than whether or not they can meet their daily needs.
  • Economic measures of poverty focus on material needs, typically including the necessities of daily living such as food, clothing, shelter, or safe drinking water.
  • The World Bank uses this definition of poverty to label extreme poverty as living on less than US $1.25 per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 or $5 a day.
  • Relative poverty explains poverty as socially defined and dependent on social context.

• Relative Deprivation Approach

  • In 1905 cars were a luxury, hence an individual unable to afford one would not feel or be viewed as deprived.
  • Relative deprivation is the experience of being deprived of something to which one feels to be entitled.
  • In extreme situations, it can lead to political violence such as rioting, terrorism, civil wars and other instances of social deviance such as crime.
  • This debate has important consequences for social policy, particularly on whether poverty can be eliminated simply by raising total wealth or whether egalitarian measures are also needed.
  • A measure of relative poverty defines poverty as being below some relative poverty line, such as households who earn less than 20% of the median income.

• The Dynamics of Poverty

  • Poverty operates in a dynamic cycle, with the effects of poverty increasing the likelihood that it will be transferred between generations.
  • Poor people are likely to have low educational attainment; because they have low educational attainment, they are likely to have poor occupational prospects and earn a low income; consequently, their children will be born poor, and will thus have low educational attainment (and so on).
  • This perpetuation of deprivation is the cycle of poverty.
  • The basic premise of the poverty cycle the idea that poverty is a dynamic process—its effects may also be its causes.
  • Without these resources, poverty-stricken individuals experience disadvantages that, in turn, increase their poverty.

• Poverty

  • Poverty is the condition of not having access to material resources, income, or wealth.
  • By local standards of relative poverty, the wealthiest person in a town in Liberia is well-off, but measured on a global scale that person is likely to be considered relatively poor.
  • The United States officially defines poverty using the poverty line.
  • "Near poverty" is the term for an income level that is just above the poverty line; it refers to incomes that are no more than 25% above the poverty line.
  • In the United States, minorities and women are more likely to be living in poverty.

• Defining and Measuring Poverty

  • Absolute poverty is poverty to the extent of which an individual is deprived of the ability to fulfill basic human needs (i.e. water, shelter, food, education, etc.).
  • The existence of poverty is one of the greatest challenges faced by the modern world, both in developing and developed nations (see ).
  • Internationally, the World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than $1 per day (adjusted for purchasing power).
  • Varying approaches have been developed to measure poverty levels, with a particular focus on creating standardized tools to capture a global context.
  • This map underlines the overall percentage of people in specific countries living on less than one dollar (USD) per day.

• The Widening War at Home

  • That same week, the faculty at the University of Michigan suspended classes and conducted a 24-hour “teach-in” on the war.
  • Originally designed to be a debate on the pros and cons of the war, at Berkeley, the teach-ins became massive antiwar rallies.
  • On October 21, 100,000 people marched on the Pentagon.
  • As the war escalated, the money spent to fund it also increased, leaving less to pay for the many social programs Johnson had created to lift Americans out of poverty.
  • Dreams of racial harmony suffered, as many African Americans, angered by the failure of Johnson’s programs to alleviate severe poverty in the inner cities, protested in frustration.