Winning the War on Poverty

I've written about the crisis of poverty before, and I've stated that I don't believe that we can really win a war on Poverty.
One of the best quotes about American poverty, I heard on afternoon radio here in Charleston. Rocky D, whom I've mentioned (and quoted) before, said this:

"If you are born poor in America, it's not your fault. If you stay poor in America, the land of opportunity, that's your fault."

Profound. Basically, this means that if you want anything above the basic poverty level in this country (and if you live in America, you really do have the deck stacked in your favor), you have to be responsible, you only have to be willing to do more than nothing to get beyond poverty. If you are willing to work hard and play by the rules, you can succeed. If you want to do better than that, you can do more. College. Trade school. Develop a marketable skill, be willing to be better at something than everybody else. YOU can write your ticket. You can do as well as you are willing to do. You can flip burgers if that's your desire, if you don't care to make alot of money. Don't complain about the paycheck if you make that choice. Because if you work hard, do your job, act agreeably, you can climb the ladder at the burger joint. If you make sure that you learn something along the way, you may make it all the way to Burger Joint Manager. You might just learn enough as Burger Joint Manager to make a bold leap- you might decide that you can run your own burger joint, that instead of working for somebody else, you want to work for you. (Crazy talk, huh?) You might struggle, you will have ups and downs, but if you have a good plan, if you hire the right people, if you make a damn good burger, you might just succeed. And you might just decide that, hey, you can handle two burger joints. What if that works out? Let's say you branch out, you diversify, you open a steak house. You work hard, you hire good people, you provide good service, the steak is to die for, and all of a sudden every seat has an ass to fill it... OR, you can sit back and get that check from the government, you can live with your mom your whole life, and you can let the rest of the world pass you by. Your call.

What can we do about this? How can we encourage people to get off the couch, to work hard, and be responsible? Because it's fairly obvious we know that poverty is going on. As much as the media wants to pretend that the problem is hidden, we all see poverty every day. There are, however, moments that thrust the problem into the spotlight, as related by Robert Samuelson.

We Americans are now supposedly discovering poverty for at least the fourth time since World War II. The first occurred in 1962, when Michael Harrington's classic "The Other America" appeared. To a nation generally dazzled by its newfound suburban prosperity, Harrington described the grim realities of West Virginia shanties and inner-city slums. Then there was Lyndon Johnson's "war on poverty" and later what was often described, rightly or wrongly, as Ronald Reagan's war against the poor. Now Hurricane Katrina has purportedly raised America's consciousness once again.

Is Samuelson saying that there was poverty before Katrina ransacked New Orleans?

The horrifying images—mostly of black people stranded on rooftops or abandoned at the Superdome—are forcing Americans to face the "enduring problems of poverty, race and class that have escaped their attention," said a Newsweek cover story. Columnist Thomas Oliphant of the Boston Globe, appearing on PBS, put it this way: "I think what happened almost spiritually in America over the last couple of weeks is that those scenes that we had to witness on television reawakened us to the enormity of poverty everywhere."

It's unclear whether most Americans are as oblivious to the problems of poverty, class and race as these journalistic pronouncements presume. But what is clear is that the leap from Katrina to broad generalizations about poverty involves considerable simplification.

Mr. Samuelson, are you suggesting that the media would stoop so low as to cram the poverty issue down America's throat because it is convenient?

...poverty among blacks—though still appallingly high—has declined sharply. In 2004 it was 24.7 percent, down from 33.1 percent in 1993, though up from 22.5 percent in 2000. As recently as 1983, it was 35.7 percent.

The dramatic improvement may reflect the 1990s' economic boom. Or it could stem from the 1996 welfare reform, which restricted benefits and imposed tougher work requirements. Job-holding among single mothers has increased significantly. Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution reports that the share of never-married mothers working rose from 46 percent to 66 percent from 1994 to 2002. The number of families receiving traditional welfare dropped from 5 million in 1994 to 2 million in 2003.

You're kidding! Did you just say that black poverty levels have trended downward since 1994, Mr. Samuelson? What happened in 1994 to begin this downturn?

Gingrich's 1994 Contract with America swept 53 new Republican members into the U.S. House, giving the GOP the majority for the first time in four decades and him the speaker's spot.

Wow! This must mean that conservative values and policies actually do work. Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Samuelson!

A second myth is that the political process has abandoned the poor. Not so. Welfare reform was not punitive; it aimed mainly to counteract a self-defeating dependency. Other major programs for the non-elderly poor have not been similarly scaled back. Some have been repeatedly expanded, usually without much fanfare.

Hmmmmmm... Self-defeating depency.

What about spending more on the poor? Perhaps some programs could be usefully expanded, but any big increase would collide with spending on the elderly—more than four times larger. Between the poor and the elderly, the poor usually lose. Indeed, many advocates for the poor also oppose controlling spending on the elderly.

Wait a minute, don't the poor need MONEY? If only we give poor folks more money, they can be poor at a lesser magnitude. Can't take from the old folks though. That would be an unpopular political decision. The race pimps will have us euthanizing the elderly if they hear about this. They are, after all, a burden on funding that could go to poor black people. And I don't think that Jesse J. and Co. are gonna stand for that. Any hope for the future?

"one of every three children—and seven of every 10 black children—are born outside marriage." Poor children, needing the most family support, have the least. This alone ensures that, even if we make added progress, poverty will repeatedly be rediscovered.

Guess not.

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