The Politics Of Poverty

Can poverty in the United States be abolished within the limits of the welfare state? Or does the present commitment to end the scandal of economic misery in the richest nation history has known require measures which will go beyond the present theories and practices of American society?

The answer is, I think, clear enough. The Johnson Administration’s current “War on Poverty” is basically inadequate, a fact which can be demonstrated by the Government’s own figures. The liberal-labor proposals for social investments which would both generate jobs and destroy the very physical environment of poverty represent a considerable advance over the present program and deserve vigorous support. But even these measur...