Who is Winning the War on Poverty

Written on Friday, January 24, 2014 by Tony Huddleston

After fifty years, the War On Poverty is a bigger failure than the War On Drugs. It’s nearly impossible to get an accurate cost, but estimates range between 15.9 and 21 trillion dollars (current value). By way of comparison, the total cost of all US military conflicts since the Revolutionary War is between 6 – 7 trillion dollars (current value).

One of the reasons it is hard to estimate a cost is that there are dozens of programs spread out among over a dozen federal entities. It’s hard enough trying to keep track of how many agencies and departments we have, let alone all of the money they waste.

Not all costs can be measured with dollars. The majority of casualties in this war are women & children, and it has become generational all too often. Families have been broken apart. Since 1973, poorer households headed by married couples have dropped from over 51% to under 39% today. Children living in poverty initially dropped from 27% to a low of 14% in 1969. Since then, however, is has risen and fallen with the economic cycles of the country and stands at 21.8% today. Poverty among Hispanics has also increased by 3%.........So, who is winning this war?  Simple. Politicians, bureaucrats, civil rights “activists” and anyone else in the exploitation and grievance industry....... To Read More....

My Take - One estimate puts the cost at 50 trillion dollars, but that's neither here nor there because for years I have been asking the same question.  Where is all this money?

If in 1960 we gave every family a half a million dollars that was living below the poverty line - told them that was the end of societies largesse – told them they would be on their own from now on - we would have eliminated poverty and saved trillions of dollars.  So where is all that money?  

It clear the 'poor' didn't get it. But during this time period government agencies have grown massively and activist organizations have flourished. That must be where the bulk of that money went. We've been defrauded! Why? Because we were told that money was for the poor. That was a lie!

There is a side bar to all of this.  We’re starting to – once again – hear how we need to stamp out poverty and equalize income.  First of all, that’s not the government’s job!  Why would we allow people who have never had real jobs make such decisions?  Secondly, does anyone really believe anything will change?  If we were to take all the world’s wealth and spread it around equally so that everyone had exactly the same amount of money, property, etc., in five years most of the rich would be rich again and most of the poor would be poor again.  Get over it!