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Sunday, December 02, 2007

When can we as a society end the war on poverty?

We are 43 years into the war on poverty declared by President Johnson and the Congress in 1964. Depending on which study you choose to believe, we have spent well over 7 trillion dollars of public monies with little change in the reported “poverty level”. Of course most think being poor in America is different from being poor in the rest of the world, even middle class in many parts of Europe and the rest of the world.

Many will consider the idea of ending the war on poverty a “code word” for many things. Some older folks will say the “war” ended in 1973 with the dismantling of the OEO (Office of Economic Opportunity), though many of these social welfare programs went elsewhere in the federal government. Many will say the “war” is a code word for Negro welfare, though if you live in Appalachia, you would disagree with this. Many will also say the “war” is a code word for redistributing wealth, or income (depending on how you look at things), as a way to gain party political power by using pandering to gain votes from welfare recipients.

Most Americans know our collective national interest, our common interests, our respect for what we have has to be respected and nutured. Our anarchists have not figured this out yet, or are just "different".

This “war” does beg the question that bedevils Americans. Why do politicians continue to assert that spending public monies is evidence of achieving the goal, or showing concern, and why do we voters continue to accept this? Most Americans work in business, and performance is a demonstrable measurement tool. And for the military types, winning a war or even a battle has little to do with human casualty tolls or sincere intentions. They know the mission comes first.

Our culture, we Americans, are deposed to helping our fellow man for the most altruistic and egalitarian reasons. Many also recognize the possibility of creating permanent dependent classes of citizens that too much largesse causes. This is a long time argument and a big deal since that is not the goal to most. It is a fine line to weave, made courser when politicians and governments get involved. Yet we go forward, so good on us. Maybe this altruism has been abused? And so many churches and their members do so many things like privately funded meals on wheels that get little national attention, though local attention is still recognized.

It appears that too many national party politicians still use the old time status quo methods to gain votes in their election, be it local, state, or federal. That much of this vote gaining seems to be pandering, as opposed to performance to help our poor, for example, is a judgment based on 40 years of observations. The idea of career politicians may never go away, but voters can make them earn their pay. And earning their pay should include ending the “war” on poverty. The political effort in the late 1990s’s was a start, but not the end. Much as we expect politicians and generals to win in Iraq, and come home, we should also expect the same in the “war” on poverty. We voters should demand nothing less.

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