War on poverty.

NC252

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President Johnson declared war on poverty in 1964. Since then we have spent over 22 trillion dollars to fight the war on poverty. That is more than have spent on all of our military interventions (real wars ) combined since the American Revolution. Could this money have been better spent somewhere else? (Infrastructure?) Would the poverty rate still be at 15% as it is now or would it have skyrocketed? Not sure of the answer but I think that without the social programs that we now have (welfare, food stamps, public housing, etc....), we would still have the same 15% poverty rate. And we would have 23 trillion more dollars!! What say you?
http://www.heritage.org/marriage-and-family/commentary/the-war-poverty-50-years-failure
 
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I'm no supporter of welfare but I honestly do wonder if without it the US would be like Brazil or South Africa with very wealthy gated areas on one side of a city and the most frightening slums on the other side with insane crime and murder rates. Sure our cities have our problems but nothing like Rio or Capetown.

Overall it's pointless to think about. I can hardly agree with my wife, who is my soul mate, on anything. How do you expect to agree with 300 million other people on what to do about poverty and spending? Just worry about you and your own and concentrate on making so much money that the tax rate doesn't even bother you. Life is short, go surf on a Friday like I'm about to, instead of thinking about this shit.
 
I'm no supporter of welfare but I honestly do wonder if without it the US would be like Brazil or South Africa with very wealthy gated areas on one side of a city and the most frightening slums on the other side with insane crime and murder rates. Sure our cities have our problems but nothing like Rio or Capetown.

Overall it's pointless to think about. I can hardly agree with my wife, who is my soul mate, on anything. How do you expect to agree with 300 million other people on what to do about poverty and spending? Just worry about you and your own and concentrate on making so much money that the tax rate doesn't even bother you. Life is short, go surf on a Friday like I'm about to, instead of thinking about this shit.
You may be right. But if 23 trillion in 53 years doesn't make a dent in the numbers percentage wise, who knows? But you are pointing to the severity of the poverty of the 15% which is something I have not considered.
 
I'm no supporter of welfare but I honestly do wonder if without it the US would be like Brazil or South Africa with very wealthy gated areas on one side of a city and the most frightening slums on the other side with insane crime and murder rates. Sure our cities have our problems but nothing like Rio or Capetown.

Overall it's pointless to think about. I can hardly agree with my wife, who is my soul mate, on anything. How do you expect to agree with 300 million other people on what to do about poverty and spending? Just worry about you and your own and concentrate on making so much money that the tax rate doesn't even bother you. Life is short, go surf on a Friday like I'm about to, instead of thinking about this shit.
Welfare makes people lazy as fuck. No doubt some people realy do need it. But it needs to be reformed and regulated. It's out of control. I know a lot of people that abuse it and it pisses the fuck out of me. You can't compare Brazil to the U.S bro. Here u can make money out of anything.
 
Poverty is a flow. Measured by annual income. You can't spend money in 1976 to reduce it in 1994. OP is incoherent.
 
We should fight a war against the poor instead
 
If we had spent all that money on infrastructure there'd be no need for welfare because all those poor people would be working trades. Trades pay very well. If there are jobs available and you're able bodied and still wont work, you should be turned into fertilizer.
 
If we had spent all that money on infrastructure there'd be no need for welfare because all those poor people would be working trades. Trades pay very well. If there are jobs available and you're able bodied and still wont work, you should be turned into fertilizer.

Poverty is more about no income than low income. The vast majority of people with pre-transfer below-poverty incomes in any year are kids, the elderly, and the disabled. Other big groups are college students, unpaid caretakers, and people who temporarily were without work during the year. No amount of infrastructure spending would change the fact that large percentages of people in those groups will not have above-poverty market incomes.
 
Welfare makes people lazy as fuck. No doubt some people realy do need it. But it needs to be reformed and regulated. It's out of control. I know a lot of people that abuse it and it pisses the fuck out of me. You can't compare Brazil to the U.S bro. Here u can make money out of anything.

IMO a mandatory urinalysis/piss test is justified in this scenario. If a person is in need of a welfare check then provide a sample.
 
Poverty is more about no income than low income.
Solved by investing in infrastructure creating jobs
The vast majority of people with pre-transfer below-poverty incomes in any year are kids, the elderly, and the disabled.
Pointing out classes of people that need caretakers is not an argument for welfare
Other big groups are college students, unpaid caretakers, and people who temporarily were without work during the year.
I worked my way through school, if you're poor and in school drop out, you can't handle life.
No amount of infrastructure spending would change the fact that large percentages of people in those groups will not have above-poverty market incomes.
That is the exact opposite of how it works. The best rout out of poverty is having a job, infrastructure is almost exclusively trade work and pays very well. So investing in infrastructure puts people to work and as an effect of that ends poverty.
 
I have offered to people I know that need money to show them how to make AT LEAST! an extra $100 every week and they always make an excuse why they cant. That great american cant do attitude.
 
Winning the war on poverty by taking away healthcare from the poor and elderly, so they have to bankrupt themselves treating sickness. Add a little sprinkle of trickle down economics to squeeze the middle class back to poor peasants through taxation and inflation.
 
Just think of all those great countries that don't have welfare......

Starving people will do fucked up things. I wouldn't live anywhere that didn't have it, not that I think I will ever use it.


Let alone my single mother was once on welfare while raising us. She received about 20k in total, fast forward 25 years and each year her kids pay over 60k in income tax.

To me the idea of simply removing welfare is more retarded than thinking it is perfectly administrated.
 
We should fight a war against the poor instead

Fuck that, then you have to touch them. Make them fight each other, give Tina Turner something to do.
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Solved by investing in infrastructure creating jobs
Pointing out classes of people that need caretakers is not an argument for welfare

More infrastructure won't change the percentage of kids, disabled, elderly people, and college students without jobs. It won't change the fact that in a dynamic, growing economy, there will always be some transitional unemployment (note that we deliberately target an unemployment rate of about 5% to keep inflation in check). So, yes, it absolutely is an argument for some form of safety net.

I worked my way through school, if you're poor and in school drop out, you can't handle life.
That is the exact opposite of how it works. The best rout out of poverty is having a job, infrastructure is almost exclusively trade work and pays very well. So investing in infrastructure puts people to work and as an effect of that ends poverty.

Poverty in the developed world is mostly a life cycle issue. Also, even with full employment (which we're pretty close to now), a quarter to a third of the population will be in poverty absent transfer payments because of the way market income distribution works. That's why every country with a market-based income-distribution system has independently developed a safety net.
 
I'm no supporter of welfare but I honestly do wonder if without it the US would be like Brazil or South Africa with very wealthy gated areas on one side of a city and the most frightening slums on the other side with insane crime and murder rates. Sure our cities have our problems but nothing like Rio or Capetown.

Overall it's pointless to think about. I can hardly agree with my wife, who is my soul mate, on anything. How do you expect to agree with 300 million other people on what to do about poverty and spending? Just worry about you and your own and concentrate on making so much money that the tax rate doesn't even bother you. Life is short, go surf on a Friday like I'm about to, instead of thinking about this shit.

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