1964 - Johnson's Great Society Ad

Was there even a big debate on whether it was actually government's job to try to end poverty?? Because, as a libertarian, I don't believe in it. It's not constitutional, and the states themselves should handle that stuff anyway. And of course, we can't put roadblocks in the way of private charity and individual initiative.

Let's look at the record: Healthcare costs are up, education quality is down, 37 million poor still, out-of-wedlock births increased in minority communities.

Doesn't sound like a good record to me. Let's just admit the war on poverty has lost and give "poverty reduction" back to the states where it belongs, if anything.  Cut back on excessive healthcare regulations and give the power back to consumers, not government OR insurance co's. Let the states run their education systems, abolish the DOE, and end NCLB. Abolish TANF, which only encourages young women to have lots of kids to have free money.

The Great Society was conceived at a time of great productivity and low inflation and unemployment. The idea was that every enterprise of human existence required the funding and staffing of a governemnt office to expedite it. In 1975, we had double digit inflation and unemployment and a moribund economy. Medicare, with it's huge bureaucracy and requirements, stands as the greatest monument to this notion.

The EITC, of course, is little more than welfare under the name "tax cut." I mean, even non-taxpayers who are poor can sometimes qualify for it! The only 2 "welfare-state" programs that work long-term are student loans, which allow people to go to college and get a degree for a high-paying job to become self-sufficient, and a good education K-12. Job training may also work, but I don't know the stats on that. But without those 3 programs, the entire welfare state would not work.

Declared the failed war on poverty. Which has drained the federal budget dry and will give us $53 Trillion in unfunded liabilities due to Medicare and SS. Poverty has remained stagnant the past 30 years or so at about 12.7%.

Let's not forget that poverty was steadily decreasing even before Johnson got into office. Poverty estimates show that it was at about 18 or 19% before 1960. And by 1970, I'm sure it would've easily lowered to 12% on its own, without the Great Society.

Government handouts, which are most of what the welfare state is, don't alleviate poverty. They just give you a little extra to work with. You're responsible for getting the education or job necessary to lift yourself up.

This was the theory, but never the practice. Before the Great Society, you had local, informal charities to tide people over rough spots. But once benevolence became institutionalized and annonymous with the GS, millions became content to dwell in perpetuity at a lowest common denominator so long as government financed that lowest common denominator--kind of a Guaranteed Minimum Income in practice if not in name.

EXEPTIONAL MAN

Yes Waiting In The Wings Was LBJ

i have lbj for a report