5 ms·

I'm not sure why you think that, poverty was high enough that Johnson thought necessary to start a war on poverty in 1964. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on

I'm not sure why you think that, poverty was high enough that Johnson thought necessary to start a war on poverty in 1964. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_poverty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_poverty

adolph 5y ago
Johnson might have had fine political skills, but his strategic sense and application of war was a disaster.
joe_the_user 5y ago
The thing that's not obvious this is that Johnson began the War On Poverty because having the lower classes in poverty wasn't politically acceptable in that time (partly because of the Cold War). In contrast, the lower classes not being able to afford rent or health care today is essentially acceptable. This link [1] shows income inequality plateauing around 1950 and then rising sharply toward the late 1980s, reaching the levels of the 1920 at around 2010. [1] https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide-to-statistics-on-historical-trends-in-income-inequality https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide...
- kingkawn 5y ago
  In other words, the American social safety net was politically necessary only because of the threat of the socialist alternative
  - asdff 5y ago
    Especially before Reagan began gutting programs, American democracy was almost like socialism-lite. Plenty of work to be found that paid living wages. Well funded government institutions and social programs, plenty of straight up communist jobs programs too although they would never be referred to as such (I consider something like NASA to be a communist entity as the people own the means of production in this agency). Jobs programs. Etc. It was a big mistake we didn't restart the WPA after WWII however and really incentivized this idea of finding work within the public government instead of private industry that serves the public on a contractual basis.
ciphol 5y ago
Kerouac's demographic at the time (young healthy adults) do pretty well in relative poverty. Other people, like the elderly and families with kids, do much worse. The War on Poverty was focused on those groups.
verisimi 5y ago
Whenever I read governmental edicts like that - eg, a war on poverty - I take the exact opposite reading re what is being attempted. "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help." Gah!
- toofy 5y ago
  and many get the same exact feeling from profit based answers. And both have many countless examples of huge failures. And what many seem to conveniently forget, both have countless examples of absolute mind blowing successes. Both.
asdff 5y ago
Because in the 60s if you were poor you were perhaps more likely to be housed in something like a single room occupancy building with a door that locks vs today where many people live in a nylon tent that can be looted in an instant.

adolph 5y ago

Johnson might have had fine political skills, but his strategic sense and application of war was a disaster.

joe_the_user 5y ago

The thing that's not obvious this is that Johnson began the War On Poverty because having the lower classes in poverty wasn't politically acceptable in that time (partly because of the Cold War). In contrast, the lower classes not being able to afford rent or health care today is essentially acceptable. This link [1] shows income inequality plateauing around 1950 and then rising sharply toward the late 1980s, reaching the levels of the 1920 at around 2010. [1] https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide-to-statistics-on-historical-trends-in-income-inequality https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide...

kingkawn 5y ago
In other words, the American social safety net was politically necessary only because of the threat of the socialist alternative
- asdff 5y ago
  Especially before Reagan began gutting programs, American democracy was almost like socialism-lite. Plenty of work to be found that paid living wages. Well funded government institutions and social programs, plenty of straight up communist jobs programs too although they would never be referred to as such (I consider something like NASA to be a communist entity as the people own the means of production in this agency). Jobs programs. Etc. It was a big mistake we didn't restart the WPA after WWII however and really incentivized this idea of finding work within the public government instead of private industry that serves the public on a contractual basis.

ciphol 5y ago

Kerouac's demographic at the time (young healthy adults) do pretty well in relative poverty. Other people, like the elderly and families with kids, do much worse. The War on Poverty was focused on those groups.

verisimi 5y ago

Whenever I read governmental edicts like that - eg, a war on poverty - I take the exact opposite reading re what is being attempted. "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help." Gah!

toofy 5y ago
and many get the same exact feeling from profit based answers. And both have many countless examples of huge failures. And what many seem to conveniently forget, both have countless examples of absolute mind blowing successes. Both.

asdff 5y ago

Because in the 60s if you were poor you were perhaps more likely to be housed in something like a single room occupancy building with a door that locks vs today where many people live in a nylon tent that can be looted in an instant.