Poverty is a Weapon of Mass Destruction

[bondwooley]

51 years ago this week, President Johnson signed a $1 billion anti-poverty bill called the Economic Opportunity Act. “Freedom,” he said, “is not enough.” The Act initiated a range of programs including:

Basic education, training and jobs for young people and work-study programs for economically challenged college students;
Adult literacy and work training programs;
Funding and volunteer programs for non-profit organizations that focus on improving conditions for the poor;
Medical and health assistance;
Loans to rural families to give them a chance to get on their feet;
Assistance to migrant farm workers to ensure that their basic needs are met; and
Loans for very small businesses that stand a chance to increase employment.

Did it work? It’s hard to tell and might have a lot to do with what answer a person is looking for. The government says that poverty dropped from 19% to under 15% in about two years and by 1967 was starting creep back up and ended right back at 19% in a decade or two. But a new study by some economists at Columbia University states that poverty might have dropped, overall, by 40% (if you take a little bit more into consideration than what the Census Bureau totaled up).

But if poverty really did start creeping back up in 1967, maybe it’s because it started getting bad-mouthed by Republicans. Nixon joined that chorus and said there was “profit in poverty,” which somehow justified diverting the funds of the Act to the Vietnam War. Reagan pretty much gutted the Act. Just recently, Congress cut aid to the SNAP program by $8 billion over the next ten years — and states got so excited that they joined in with great ideas like not letting poor people buy steak or fish, cookies, energy drinks, lottery tickets or go to the movies.

America’s come a long way, baby – from helping the poor to hating them. Today, almost every bullet point above is a knee-slapper, a political pipe dream.

But that doesn’t take away from the courage and dignity of the Act itself. A forward-looking, compassionate and economically sane Act that was passed by a U.S. Congress. It was signed by a U.S. President. And that really happened 51 years ago this week.

(Posted with permission from original; links to sources at http://lesterandcharlie.com/2015/08/18/freedom-is-not-enough/)

[jwirr]

1. It was a good program but like every good program directed at the

poor Rs took their axe to it and destroyed as much of it as possible. They have also been doing it to the FDR New Deal from the beginning. Today we are being forced to defend even Social Security.

[daredtowork]

5. I've been looking at this and

it seems to me that a lot of the programs were successful and kept - but moved under other departments so it would look like the "War on Poverty" failed.

Obama actually chopped one of the last and most important aspects of the War on Poverty in half in 2011: the Community Service Block Grants. That provided a work-around for all the layers of politics and vested-interests to fund community agencies that would bundle together all the various services and programs and directly help people in need.

The question is always "how do we monitor?" or "how do we measure?" Well they should find ways to monitor and measure to satisfy themselves rather than taking the funding away!!! SHAME ON EVERYONE INVOLVED!!!

[jwirr]

7. I was part of some of those programs and they would have worked for

me if I had not had a disabled daughter who needed full time care.

[scrubthedata]

13. Yes

You stated:

"Well they should find ways to monitor and measure to satisfy themselves rather than taking the funding away!!!"

Take that one step further -- they should find ways to monitor and measure to satisfy themselves rather than making it all up for ulterior motives.

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. Maslow's hierachy on needs

The most fundamental and basic four layers of the pyramid contain what Maslow called "deficiency needs" or "d-needs": esteem, friendship and love, security, and physical needs. If these "deficiency needs" are not met – with the exception of the most fundamental (physiological) need – there may not be a physical indication, but the individual will feel anxious and tense. Maslow's theory suggests that the most basic level of needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire (or focus motivation upon) the secondary or higher level needs. Maslow also coined the term "metamotivation" to describe the motivation of people who go beyond the scope of the basic needs and strive for constant betterment


Physiological needs are the physical requirements for human survival. If these requirements are not met, the human body cannot function properly and will ultimately fail. Physiological needs are thought to be the most important; they should be met first.
Air, water, and food are metabolic requirements for survival in all animals, including humans. Clothing and shelter provide necessary protection from the elements. While maintaining an adequate birth rate shapes the intensity of the human sexual instinct, sexual competition may also shape said instinct.[2]

Safety needs
With their physical needs relatively satisfied, the individual's safety needs take precedence and dominate behavior. In the absence of physical safety – due to war, natural disaster, family violence, childhood abuse, etc. – people may (re-)experience post-traumatic stress disorder or transgenerational trauma. In the absence of economic safety – due to economic crisis and lack of work opportunities – these safety needs manifest themselves in ways such as a preference for job security, grievance procedures for protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings accounts, insurance policies, reasonable disability accommodations, etc. This level is more likely to be found in children because they generally have a greater need to feel safe.

Safety and Security needs include:
Personal security
Financial security
Health and well-being
Safety net against accidents/illness and their adverse impacts


snip

Research
Recent research appears to validate the existence of universal human needs, although the hierarchy proposed by Maslow is called into question.[15][16]

Following World War II, the unmet needs of homeless and orphaned children presented difficulties that were often addressed with the help of attachment theory, which was initially based on Maslow and others' developmental psychology work by John Bowlby.[17] Originally dealing primarily with maternal deprivation and concordant losses of essential and primal needs, attachment theory has since been extended to provide explanations of nearly all the human needs in Maslow's hierarchy, from sustenance and mating to group membership and justice


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs

[fayhunter]

3. We have to do more

than say "we tried and it didn't work". Maybe baby steps is better. Start with eduction. Real, affordable education -- not education that means we've produced drones that can take back jobs from China. It's a new world. We need new thinking.

[jtuck004]

6. Actually we tried it and it did work. People simply choose not to do it now. They can

restart any damn time they feel up to it.

By the way - you are the source of the new thinking they need.

Don't let that keep you up tonight.

[daredtowork]

10. The War on Poverty didn't fail - the money was rerouted to the Vietnam War

Sure there was fussing and hand-wringing in Congress about accountability: and the main issue was people of color got to control a lot of the money, and Federal money was circumventing usual crony-capitalism routes and going directly into communities.

Since Reagan and the "trickle down economics" era, we are back to the Bad Old Days of the money going to the (white) superrich and gradually trickling down via claims of "meritocracy" and "hard work" shielded by some notion that as long as the money is in the hands of white people then "metrics" must have been involved to "account" for the effectiveness of the money's use.

I've seen this B.S. in action at the local level.

A grant goes to the city: it goes to a high priced consultant and the pseudo "result" is a fancy report with a lot of statistics. This can be sent back to the Feds to win more competitive funding, and it is called "accountability" though not one single poor person was helped. Some rich consultants got paid, though.

Meanwhile, a really effective community agency that gives homeless kids job skills, confidence skills, leadership skills, social skills - smooths their way back into education, community integration, and future goals - almost gets defunded because they don't have the proper metrics. The results can be seen right there in the caliber of the kids that go through their program, but yet they don't waste money on lobbyists or schmoozing, so their program is danger. This is ridiculous! The results that count should be the results that are signified through people, not who can produce the shiniest report *about* poor people.

[jtuck004]

14. I know. Grew up in Oklahoma, and along with being one of the single most Progressive

states, they built one of the premiere vocational school systems in the nation. You could literally study any of dozens of good paying trades and go to work. I took some of their network classes - when other places were charging $20K a year, I could get a computer and software there, even learn on my own, for about $1 an hour. Took an Air Condiitoning class - turned out to be taught by an engineer from Trane just working a second job - taught us electrical troubleshooting that was invaluable, and I went to work with that too.

I remember a block grant program funded an effort where they were trying to get kids off the streets and into work. Right in the historically black area, NE Oklahoma City, they were running a tremendous program.

They also funded city leadership programs, lots of community activities.

Much got cut, as I recall. Silly, shortsighted and lazy people, we are. Think all the good things are gonna happen without our investment. Hah.

It's the choices we make, as you said. And it hurts all of us.

[daredtowork]

15. More Community Block Grant funding cuts to come this year

What the heck is Obama thinking?
http://www.governing.com/topics/finance/gov-obama-budget-fiscal-year-2016.html

[jtuck004]

16. There is no perceptible effect to people they care about. If that was a playground for

bank$ter/donor's kids it would have an automatic 10% increase.

The real killer is that it means so much to the people who are getting it. But as far as amounts we invest, what some people call cost, it's nothing compared to the hundreds of billions we shuttle to the rentiers, rent seekers, wealth hording capitalists...

...which we do by policy. That purposely leaves tens of millions without hope of getting out of poverty or near poverty, since government was and always will be their only hope. But it pumps up the wealth of the (us?) other 300 million people, long enough to get by a few years, anyway. Then it falls. After you are gone.

Such cuts have never been anything but tragic as far as I can find, but hope springs eternal, I guess. It will be in the history books, so we can see what happens, and it might be good. For whatever of a future is left, anyway.

We maybe should be building huge houseboats. lol, I think.

[Stargazer99]

4. The state of this country is a shame

It is the wealthy and corporations that have destroyed the value of human life
THEY ARE THE PROBLEM, not the teachers, police, government workers, etc-now how do we get that fixed? They have divided and conquered the common man
someone said now we have only 5% unemployment-what the hell do you think the 5% are feeling? or does it matter?
or have you ever thought about it? Others say well I paid for a college education or special training why should someone not meeting that expense or effort received enough money to live on? They have you well trained don't they....
One of those well to do and I can't remember his name said he could hire 1/2 of the human population to kill the other half without a problem...even many of you don't see that. Conservatives say the poor don't make an effort to help themselves... we've shipped jobs overseas and pay people poorly....THAT couldn't have anything to do with it?....could it? Think!!!
poverty creates social problems...but who gives a damn as long as it isn't you experiencing them....right? THINK....or do you just want to sit back until they come for you?

[Uncle Joe]

8. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, bondwooley.

[bondwooley]

9. Thank you

Much appreciated.

[seveneyes]

11. Most of us have seen poverty in our own realm

[scrubthedata]

12. Well stated. nt