WHERE DID ALL THE MONEY GO ?

THE EAGLE WATCH

************************************************  "The trick to money is to stop thinking of it as ‘your' money" –IRS ************************************************

  WHERE DID ALL THE MONEY GO ?

   In his January 1964 State of the Union address, President Lyndon Johnson proclaimed, “This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America.” In the 50 years since that time, U.S. taxpayers have spent over $22 trillion on anti-poverty programs. Adjusted for inflation, this spending (which does not include Social Security or Medicare) is  "three times the cost of all U.S. military wars since the American Revolution."  Yet progress against poverty, as measured by the U.S. Census Bureau, has been minimal, ( Stands at about 13% today, down from about 15% in '64.) and in terms of President Johnson’s main goal of reducing the “causes” rather than the mere “consequences” of poverty, the War on Poverty has failed completely. In fact, a significant portion of the population is now less capable of self-sufficiency than it was when the War on Poverty began.

The last paragraph from a Time.com article goes thusly even after whitewashing the War on Poverty with the increase in non cash benefits such as Medicaid and food stamps which are not included in statistics. The "war" has not made any considerable dent in the poverty rate.

The War on Poverty has clearly not been won. No amount of explaining, interpreting or squinting at the plot of U.S. poverty rates can get us to a declaration of victory. Declarations of defeat are just as misguided, however. The War on Poverty has been fought against a shifting landscape that has made the effort more difficult with each passing decade. Renewed efforts that recognize demographic and labor market realities and the enormous challenges they place on anti-poverty efforts, and measures of that progress, should be the hallmarks of the next phase in this war.

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 Putsch........A German word meaning push, used to mean an attempt to overthrow a government by force.....Gee, that sounds familiar but maybe not a government, just a University.   It's a start.