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 Lyndon B. Johnson Administration

  • He accomplished an ambitious domestic agenda, enacting the "Great Society" and "War on Poverty," which were a collection of programs related to civil rights, economic opportunity, education, healthcare, environmental protection, and public broadcasting.
  • Historians argue that the Great Society and War on Poverty mark the peak of liberal policy in the United States and the culmination of the New Deal era.
  • His war on poverty dominated his presidency and included such acts as the 1964 Economic Opportunities Act, the 1965 Housing and Development Act, and the 1965 Social Security Act.
  • The war stimulated a large, angry antiwar movement based especially on university campuses in the U.S. and abroad.
  • As the Vietnam 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.

• 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.

• The Social Problem

  • Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth was written by Henry George in 1879 and is a treatise on the cyclical nature of an industrial economy and its remedies.
  • As an alternative, he proposes his own solution: a single tax on land values.
  • This would be a tax on the annual value of land held as private property.
  • This shift in the bargaining balance between resource owners and laborers would raise the general level of wages and ensure no one need suffer involuntary poverty.
  • The Third Great Awakening, which began before the Civil War, returned and made a significant change in religious attitudes toward social progress.

• The Post-War Boom

  • Many Americans continued to live in poverty throughout the 1950s, especially older people and African Americans, the latter of whom continued to earn far less than their white counterparts on average in the two decades following the end of the Second World War.
  • Between one-fifth to one-fourth of the population could not survive on the income they earned.
  • Many blue-collar workers continued to live in poverty, with 30% of those employed in industry.
  • In 1947, 60% of black families lived below the poverty level (defined in one study as below $3000 in 1968), compared with 23% of white families.
  • In 1968, 23% of black families lived below the poverty level, compared with 9% of white families.

• The Transition to Peacetime

  • Following the war, the U.S. was largely able to maintain economic growth and resist inflation.
  • Consumerism represented one of the consequences (as well as one of the key ingredients) of the postwar economic boom.
  • Nevertheless, between one-fifth to one-fourth of the population could not survive on the income they earned.
  • In 1947, 60% of black families lived below the poverty level (defined in one study as below $3000 in 1968 dollars), compared with 23% of white families.
  • In 1968, 23% of black families lived below the poverty level, compared with 9% of white families.

• "Poor Whites"

  • "Poor whites" were the lowest white class in the antebellum south; in spite of their poverty, most still supported the Confederacy.
  • They were "self-working farmers," distinct also from the elite because they physically labored on their land alongside any slaves they owned.
  • Wetherington suggests that their localism and racism dovetailed with a republican ideology founded on Jeffersonian notions of an "economically independent yeomanry sharing common interests. " During the war plain folk raised subsistence crops and vegetables and relied on a free and open range to hunt hogs.
  • White supremacy and masculinity depended on slavery, which Lincoln's Republicans threatened.
  • As the war dragged on, hardship became a day-to-day reality.

• Conclusion: WWII and the U.S.

  • Despite the prosperity of the postwar era, a significant minority of Americans continued to live in poverty: between one-fifth to one-fourth of the population could not survive on the income they earned.
  • Many blue-collar workers continued to live in poverty, with 30% of those employed in industry.
  • In 1947, 60% of black families lived below the poverty level (defined in one study as below $3000 in 1968), compared with 23% of white families.
  • In 1968, 23% of black families lived below the poverty level, compared with 9% of white families.
  • Summarize the effects of the war on the American economy and society at large.