How the Expensive War on Poverty Failed

Rachel Sheffield/ @RachelSheffiel2 

“This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America.” – President Lyndon B. Johnson, State of the Union Address, January 8, 1964

This past Friday marked the 52nd anniversary of Johnson’s declaration and his pledge that “Our aim is not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it.” Yet after half a century and trillions of dollars, poverty has fought us to a standstill. 

First, the War on Poverty has failed to achieve Johnson’s goal: to “strike[] at the causes, not just the consequences of poverty.” Since he declared “unconditional war,” poverty has thumbed its nose at its would-be conquerors.

The official poverty rate has hovered between ten and fifteen percent for 50 years. But that is only a part of the story. Since the 1960s, the institutions that contribute to self-sufficiency – namely marriage and work – have declined. Today more than 40 percent of children are born outside marriage; in 1964 only 7 percent were.… Read More