Einstein, we think, defined "insanity," as doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result
"The War on Poverty: What Went Wrong?"
Ron HaskinsTuesday, November 19, 2013
https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/the-war-on-poverty-what-went-wrong/
"Rather than look to government for the complete solution to poverty, we should also focus attention on three factors that are directly linked to poverty and are under the control of individual Americans – education, family composition, and work. In an advanced economy that features technological sophistication and faces international competition, it is difficult to escape poverty without a good education or a marketable skill. "
"The War on Poverty: 50 years of failure"
Sep 23rd, 2014
Robert Rector Senior Research Fellow
Robert is a leading authority on poverty, welfare programs and immigration in America.
https://www.heritage.org/marriage-and-family/commentary/the-war-poverty-50-years-failure
"This year marks the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson's launch of the War on Poverty. In January 1964, Johnson declared "unconditional war on poverty in America." Since then, the taxpayers have spent $22 trillion on Johnson's war. Adjusted for inflation, that's three times the cost of all military wars since the American Revolution.
Last year, government spent $943 billion dollars providing cash, food, housing and medical care to poor and low-income Americans. (That figure doesn't include Social Security or Medicare.) More than 100 million people, or one-third of Americans, received some type of welfare aid, at an average cost of $9,000 per recipient. If converted into cash, this spending was five times what was needed to eliminate all poverty in the U.S.
The U.S. Census Bureau has just released its annual poverty report. The report claims that in 2013, 14.5 percent of Americans were poor. Remarkably, that's almost the same poverty rate as in 1967, three years after the War on Poverty started. How can that be? How can government spend $9,000 per recipient and have no effect on poverty? The answer is - it can't."
Start over?
"Rather than repeating the mistakes of the past we should return to Johnson's original goal. Johnson sought to help the poor help themselves. He aimed to free the poor from the need for government aid, rather than to increase their dependence. That's a vision worth recapturing."
"Stanford scholar connects 1960s federal anti-poverty programs to today’s inequality in cities"
Stanford postdoctoral scholar Claire Dunning traces the history and effects of New Careers, a 1960s federal anti-poverty program. While it helped expand the nonprofit sector, it also perpetuated inequality in urban areas.
By Alex Shashkevich October 27, 2017
https://news.stanford.edu/2017/10/27/dissecting-effects-1960s-anti-poverty-programs-present-u-s/
"Eager to help local communities during the 2008 financial crisis, Claire Dunning, then a fresh college graduate, took a program assistant position at a Boston foundation. A historian by training, she was struck by the nonprofit sector’s great responsibilities – addressing poverty, improving infrastructure, etc. – and its evolution over time."
OK, tell me more.
"Dunning ties nonprofits and Johnson’s policies together in her recently published article in the Journal of Urban History. There, she argues that New Careers, one of Johnson’s lesser-known anti-poverty programs, and the theory behind it contributed to the growth of the nonprofit sector across the United States, but also perpetuated inequality in urban areas. It’s a lesson, Dunning said, that should not be forgotten."
More.
"New Careers, which existed between the mid-1960s and early 1970s, awarded grants to a large swath of nonprofit sector organizations, which included large hospitals and schools, as well as small community daycares and health clinics, to create new human services positions for local workers who lacked professional training.
Dunning’s research shows that while New Careers created between 250,000 and 400,000 nonprofessional jobs, according to some estimates, it also inspired a wider approach to creating entry-level jobs in the human services fields."
More.
