1 in 3 Americans living on Welfare, food stamps & Medicaid. Has the War on Poverty failed??!!

by BlueRepublican Posted 2012/06/23 15:54:41

Related Topics: War, Food, Food Stamps, Poverty, Welfare, Medicaid, Americans, Image, Living, Images, Assistance, SodaHead, American

Read More

41 votes
Read all 57 opinions
View Results and Demographics + View Demographics

Loading Demographics... Click an icon to see demographic results Display unknown and private
	YES	30 votes	73%
	NO	0 votes	0%
	Undecided	2 votes	5%
	None of the above	9 votes	22%

In the 60's LBJ declared a War on Poverty. Today we have 1/3 of Americans receiving some type of public assistance. Why is that? Has the War on Poverty FAILED??!!

lbj

Add a comment above

Max 2012/06/23 16:49:06

YES

+8
I think after so many years of American citizens getting used to the idea that the government will take care of you, so don't worry about jobs or groceries, rent, cell phones, etc., etc.
You can just keep popping out babies without a care in the world.

There are people that really need the help but there are others that abuse the system and this is really where these programs are failing. These sort of programs should be a temporary help and not a generation after generation way of living.
>> See Replies

More polls by BlueRepublican

Boo 2012/06/27 21:23:39

YES

The war on poverty is what is driving the shrinking middle class into poverty!

reply
JAA 2012/06/25 20:33:47

None of the above

There was never a serious "war" on poverty, because those attempting to fight it never really understood the enemy & the economy of poverty. As usual, the government threw band-aids at a social problem & hoped they would stick & the wound would be healed.

Rule #1 in war: "Know thine enemy."

reply
rightside 2012/06/25 19:45:03

YES

There is no war on poverty except to keep those in poverty, there.

reply
Contarded Chickenhawk Con S... 2012/06/25 15:12:32

Undecided

The war hasn't failed... It's been extorted...

There needs to be verifiable means testing.

And some need to learn that the hungry can't live off of talking points.

reply
Tasine 2012/06/24 22:57:56

YES

+1
LBJ may have called it a "war on poverty", but it never was. I believe it has always been a means of garnering votes. Period. I don't believe LBJ ever gave a hoot in hell about anybody but LBJ.

reply
Boo to Tasine 2012/06/27 21:24:54

+1
Nor most politicians!

reply
Tasine to Boo 2012/06/27 21:47:46

+1
Agreed!

reply
Michaelene 2012/06/24 19:35:39

YES

+1
A half century of this war on poverty and it just gets worse.
It's time to earn your keep, work for welfare helped reduce the rolls before and it will work again.

reply
ScottyG - Faqueue 2012/06/24 18:41:12

YES

But you missed the point. Obama never meant to fix the economy. He is fully committed on destroying it and making the US his Emerika! Socialism/communism was always the original goal.

reply
Callaway 2012/06/24 18:23:19

YES

+3
Give a man a fish he will eat for a day teach a man to fish and he will eat forever.

reply
burning... to Callaway 2012/07/06 23:12:48 (edited)

Kind of hard when the government finds new ways to harass small business and encourages jobs to be shipped overseas. That and all the bail outs and subsidies. It pays to be super rich in the US, everyone else is getting screwed.

reply
johnpaul 2012/06/24 15:36:42

YES

+2
It wasn't intented to suceed, it was intented to create dependency on the government!! As was the Social Security Act of Aug 15 1935. The government has now taken the place of God & Church to most people. And most so call churches belong to the government by their 501c3 incorperations. Therefore controled by the I.R.S. Not Churches at all!!!!

reply
Reichstolz 2012/06/24 06:51:28

YES

+1
It was a failure from its inception. No one can be lifted from poverty, they must do it themselves. The percentage of "poor" in this nation remains relatively unchanged throughout our history. The reason being no one can change your circumstances for you.

reply
TheTruth1313 2012/06/24 06:36:30

YES

+1
Looks like.

reply
TuringsChild 2012/06/24 06:34:41

YES

+4
Govt is incapable of charity. When it took over the church's role, we officially became an immoral State. It isn't charity unless it is freely given. Taxes are taken by force.

reply
gregaj7 2012/06/24 05:43:56

YES

+2
The moment it started.

reply
Cyan9 2012/06/24 05:01:20

None of the above

+1
As already pointed out those statistics are seriously misleading. Anyway, the original Great Society programs were very effective at reducing poverty which stood at a stable rate spiking only in economic bad times(like today). Also, the metric used to determine the poverty line is outdated and needs to revised. This has lead our own government declaring in 1995, "The official poverty measure in the United States is flawed and does not adequately inform policy-makers or the public about who is poor and who is not poor." We've in many ways pushed poverty under the rug so we could avoid the root causes. There are many more efficient ways to lower poverty than the programs we have today. However, it doesn't revoke the positive effects it has had on millions of needy families.

reply
Reichstolz to Cyan9 2012/06/24 06:54:11

+1
Nice selective graph, if you want a true picture you must look at our nation through the majority of its history. You will find, by doing that, programs have little effect on the overall percentage of "poor" in the nation. A 50 year snapshot is not a representative sample.

reply
The Birdman 2012/06/24 04:48:18

YES

+2
All these assistance programs were intended to help get folks back on their feet, not provide a lifetime of entitlements! The public has become dependent on these programs like a strung out drug addict and they don't want it to stop! Lazy, fat f*cks that would rather be spoon fed than work for what they need!

reply
Torchmanner ~PWCM~JLA 2012/06/24 03:25:50

YES

+4
The "war" on poverty has created a monster that puts even MORE people on public assistance.

reply
santa6642 2012/06/24 01:01:22

YES

+4
They now live better than those that are working who have to pay for all the freebes being given away.and have their families struggle to survive.

reply
wtxwoman 2012/06/23 22:16:26 (edited)

None of the above

+2
You made an important error in your statement. It is not 1 in 3 living on Welfare, Food Stamps AND Medicaid. It is 1 in 3 living on Welfare, Food Stamps, OR Medicaid. This is a very important DIFFERENCE. No everyone on what is counted as Welfare, i.e. SSI and Unemployment Insurance and Aid to Children, is also on Food Stamps or Medicaid. Some people get FS and nothing else. Same for Medicaid. Your poll is very misleading. The actual figures are closer to 50 million on Food Stamps, 40 million on Medicaid and 4.4 million on Welfare. Learn how to read a graph, please.JEEZ!

I FORGOT TO ADD THAT THERE ARE OVER 330,000,000 PEOPLE IN THE USA!

reply
Cyan9 to wtxwoman 2012/06/24 04:51:09

Actually your population estimate is slightly too high: http://www.census.gov/populat...

reply
wtxwoman to Cyan9 2012/06/24 06:30:03

I stand corrected, but it doesn't change the gist of my comment.

reply
BlueRep... to wtxwoman 2012/06/24 18:50:29

+1
Ok. The question was Has the War on Poverty FAILED?
I think you know the answer.

reply
wtxwoman to BlueRep... 2012/06/24 20:51:23

+2
There will always be poor people. A lot of the problems people are having today is because they used extremely poor judgement by buying houses they couldn't afford, driving more vehicles, more, more, more.....you get the drift. I have no sympathy for them. I do not like the people who sent jobs to China, Pakistan, India, etc. By the same token the Unions gauged the Companies until they left. No one wants to meet in the middle. All the politicians from both sides are grabbing everything they can for themselves. Maybe we deserve what we get. Who knows?

reply
BlueRep... to wtxwoman 2012/06/25 15:28:45

I believe in personal responsibility. The Bible says you reap what you sow. People who make bad decisions need to face the consequences of their actions or inaction.
Nanny govt is trying to protect people from themselves and shelter them from reality and not only is it expensive, it does not work.

reply
wtxwoman to BlueRep... 2012/06/25 16:55:22

I don't think there ever was a WAR on poverty to begin with, just a name and a few slogans that looked good to some. But, it was very misleading to say that 1/3 of our total population was on all three of the programs. Granted, it is a large number. What we need to consider is the change since the so called war was called. I believe in personal responsibility, too.

reply
BlueRep... to wtxwoman 2012/06/25 17:01:12

+1
Believe it or not, people on SH can sometimes be misleading. I only use this power with good intentions to bring attention to important issues.
I've seen people who didn't start looking for a job until they found out they're unemployment benefits were running out. Whaddayathink?

reply
wtxwoman to BlueRep... 2012/06/25 17:31:12

+1
I know what you mean. Learning to live poor is a valuable skill. Common sense helps, too.

reply
Daniel 2012/06/23 22:00:19

YES

+4
The government stepped in to offer temporary help to the under achievers but only created generations of defendants. Kids learn from their parents. Feed the parents and you'll have to feed their children and their children's children. Socialisms spreads and in the end fails.

reply
KingdomNow 2012/06/23 20:50:46

YES

+5
When you invest in Poverty you only encourage it.

reply
Vision of Verve 2012/06/23 20:48:01
Patriot Unit 2012/06/23 20:47:14

YES

+2
Yes, and that is the fact of the matter, and can not be denied.

reply
Christy 2012/06/23 20:17:06

None of the above

+1
A bit misleading--that number also includes Social Security and Medicare.

"Some 26% of Americans lived in households where someone received Medicaid, while the figure was 15% for food stamps. Those programs were by far the largest of the safety net. Meanwhile, 16% of people lived in households collecting Social Security and 15% receiving Medicare benefits."

reply
KingdomNow to Christy 2012/06/23 20:51:19

+5
And both are also failures.

reply
BlueRep... to Christy 2012/06/24 18:48:41

+1
Actually Christy, in the article the number I cited is without including SS & MCare. Included it would amount to 50+% of Americans.

reply
Ken 2012/06/23 20:09:02

YES

+4
It has put them in poverty.

reply
mrdrawingguy 2012/06/23 19:22:18

None of the above

And the rest of us pay for this nonsense....

reply
rustyshackelford 2012/06/23 18:53:52