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By
Akindman,
Admitting Defeat in
the War on Poverty
Randy Hekman -
Thursday, November 10, 2011
It's time our federal
government in Washington admitted defeat in the federal War on Poverty. All
this ill-fated 'War' has done is put America deeper in debt, make whole generations
of Americans enslaved to government handouts, and weakened American families.
The fact that we have
lost the War on Poverty is incontrovertible: recent news indicated that the
number of the "poorest poor" of Americans, those at or below 50
percent of the poverty level, have reached new levels never before recorded.
One out of every 15 Americans, about 20.5 million qualify for this dubious
distinction. The percentage (6.7%) has never been higher. According to the U.S.
Census Bureau, the percentage of these "very poor" rose in 300 of
America's 360 largest metro areas in 2010. Nearly 15 percent of Americans,
(45.8 million people) now receive food stamps: that includes about one in four
American children.
The federal
government's War on Poverty began in 1964 as part of President Johnson's plan
to build the Great Society. As with most government programs, what began
modestly has grown to where we now spend 13 times more than was spent in the
1960s. While all the real wars since the Revolution have cost taxpayers about
$6.4 trillion, the War on Poverty has cost more than $16 trillion—ironically
very close to our national debt which very soon will pass the $15 trillion
mark. This is no coincidence. Whenever a nation decides it's going to meet all
the needs of its citizens, it is guaranteed to go bankrupt. Witness the
economic chaos in Greece, Italy and Spain.
If all this federal
expense were uniformly helping our people, it would be one thing. But making
many otherwise capable people perpetually dependent on governmental handouts is
neither loving nor ennobling; it is demeaning. Franklin Roosevelt said in 1935,
"Continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral
disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out
relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human
spirit."
Finally, federal
welfare has hurt the American family. Part of the welfare structure is a
"marriage penalty" which is a not-so-subtle inducement to bear
children out of wedlock. Over 40 percent of children in the U.S. are born to
women not married, a major rise from when the War on Poverty began. In some
parts of our urban areas—like Detroit—this birth-out-of-wedlock rate exceeds 80
percent. This is a recipe for generational poverty. President Ronald Reagan
said in 1988, "With the best of intentions, government [welfare
programming] created a poverty trap that wreaks havoc on the very support
system the poor need most to lift themselves out of poverty: the family. Dependency
has become one enduring heirloom, passed from one generation to the next, of
too many fragmented families."
What's the answer?
For generations before 1964, Americans helped one another as neighbors,
extended families, non-profits and churches met the needs of the poor. Real
welfare requires real compassion. And that takes human-to-human contact,
caring, mentoring, encouragement and—sometimes—firmness. "If a man will
not work, he shall not eat," says a verse from the New Testament.
As to jobs, there is
a great new approach to moving people off welfare to sustainable jobs using an
approach called social enterprise. This is a marriage between business and
community that is totally a private effort, but still produces a major positive
governmental and economic impact. In this vein, over the past 8 years, Fred
Keller and his Cascade Engineering in Grand Rapids has helped over 400 people
escape welfare dependency. As of last count, 63 percent are still off the
welfare rolls. We need to export this program to every part of Michigan now.
It's a win-win-win for our nation's economy, for the individual, and for his or
her family.
Corporate CEO Reza Mokhtarian Looks To Continue His War
On Poverty In 2012 (http://www.prlog.org/11760940-corporate-ceo-reza-mokhtarian-looks-to-continue-his-war-on-poverty-in-2012.html)
http://faculty.virginia.edu/sixties/readings/War%20on%20Poverty%20entry%20Poverty%20Encyclopedia.pdf
Can we in America work
together and put an end to poverty in our country?
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