From the War on Poverty to the War on the Poor
Last edited Fri Apr 25, 2014, 07:06 PM - Edit history (1)
Paul Ryan (R-WI), chair of the House Budget Committee, issued a 250-page report in March entitled "The War on Poverty: 50 Years Later." Unsurprisingly, the report repeats the conservative charge that the alleged "disincentives to work" in federal anti-poverty programs remain a primary cause of poverty. In introducing the report, Ryan drew heavily on this argument, contending that "We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work."
Paul Ryan's remarks are likely only initial salvos in a fiftieth-anniversary ideological conflict over whether the War on Poverty failed or succeeded. So far, most liberal commentators have responded by defending the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs in keeping tens of millions out of poverty. Yet it is not just conservatives who deploy the "culture of poverty" argument these days. While President Obama recently offered minor, inexpensive proposals to restore "equality of opportunity" (like partnering community colleges with corporations on job training programs), he continually chides black men for abandoning their parental responsibilities. His "My Brother's Keepers Initiative" asks philanthropic organizations to help young black men get "back on track" and stop "abandon[ing] their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men."
Rarely does Obama speak of mass inner-city under- and unemployment as factors contributing to this phenomenon, or of the evidence that non-married African-American fathers are, on average, more involved in parenting than are white non-married fathers. Indeed, few mainstream commentators argue that the War on Poverty did not go far enough, or that the economic devastation of inner cities and the industrial heartland have structural economic causes that made "work disappear," as sociologist William Julius Wilson put it twenty years ago. If there are jobs to be had in these areas, they are low-wage service jobs that fail to provide a family wage, often even if two family members hold such jobs.
Politicians of both parties talk about ameliorating poverty. Yet few "opinion makers" argue that poverty could be radically curtailed, perhaps eliminated, if we had the political will to transform the American economy. Absent social movements militantly protesting growing inequality, our political elites are unlikely to shift budget and tax priorities so as to fund federal job creation programs and expand social rights such as truly universal health care, publicly funded child care, and parental leave.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/23270-from-the-war-on-poverty-to-the-war-on-the-poor
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