Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven were a married couple who were both professors at Columbia University School of Social Work. They proposed a political strategy in 1966 to have the federal government take over all welfare from the states and expand welfare until it overloaded and collapsed the government and the economy. This would then force the federal government to provide a guaranteed income to everyone, and eventually take over the private sector of the economy.
Cloward and Piven’s plan was much more detailed, and involved many steps, but the basic plan and objective was as I have stated. Their proposal is quite interesting and I would recommend reading it in detail. I must warn you it is a little scary when you look at recent history. Cloward and Piven felt the Democratic Party was the best vehicle to implement the plan. I think the plan kind of sounds like socialism, communism, Marxism, or Maoism. I don’t think the term Progressive was the politically correct term then.
In 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson became the 36th President of the United States. His vision for the country was what he called the Great Society. In 1964 LBJ announced what he called the war on poverty, which drastically expanded federal welfare programs. There are now over eighty federal welfare programs, and total welfare expenditures have increased 11,000%. Yes, that is eleven thousand percent since LBJ’s war on poverty.
Has the war on poverty worked? The percentage of the population living in poverty is about the same. We now have two and three generations that know nothing except living on welfare. We have enslaved these people to a life of welfare. I understand I have used a politically incorrect term, but it best describes what we have done to these people and it has nothing to do with race.
If these policies have not worked after fifty years, do we make a change in policy, or just throw more money at the problem? Our national debt has increased $6 trillion since President Obama took office and we a now approaching a $17 trillion debt. What did Einstein call the Definition of Insanity? I think it was, “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Maybe creating jobs and teaching a responsible work ethic is a better plan. Is it time we elect some fiscally responsible representatives with some real plans for change?
The real question is "Do poor people have it better in 2013 than the poor people of 1964?"
ReplyDeleteI am not aware that anyone has taken on that comparison but I venture to say that poor people are much better off today than before. I think America has the finest poor people in the world and should be proud of that fact. Others think that America's poor are not destitute enough and they want more misery to descend upon the poor. They are mean spirited.