It's less "land of plenty" than it is the federal government paying for big bedrooms instead of universal healthcare and a proper social safety net. As part of

It's less "land of plenty" than it is the federal government paying for big bedrooms instead of universal healthcare and a proper social safety net. As part of the post-depression New Deal and especially after WWII, single-family housing was very heavily subsized by the federal government. However, these policies were coupled with segregationist housing restrictions that pretty much excluded non-white Americans from the rise of suburbia in the 50s. While white suburban families were accumulating wealth through home ownership and mortgage equity, black families (as well as rural Americans who didn't see many of the benefits of the industrial boom of the 40s and 50s) were increasingly pushed into poverty.