(Newswire.net — November 13, 2015) Henderson, Nevada — President Lyndon B. Johnson “war on poverty,” debate is ongoing as poor Americans struggle to find jobs, get affordable health care and provide for their family as the income and inequality gap widen.
President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration signed the Economic Opportunity Act in 1964 to eliminate poverty on a national level in the US and raised public awareness of poverty according to K. B Germany, author of, “The Politics of Poverty and History…” The policy planned to accomplish this task through the implementations of social programs such as Job Corps that provided at-risk youth with jobs and social skills.
The Department of Labor administered this program which supported President Johnson’s agenda that is, commonly referred to as the “War on Poverty.” In 1996, the call to end poverty came about with a new welfare reform called the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which served as a response to criticisms of welfare dependency L. J. Servon, author of Bootstrap capital: Microenterprises and the American poor revealed.
From 1996 to 1999, federal government officials reduced spending on entitlement programs offering temporary assistance to the poor. The welfare system created no incentive for poor people to get off welfare; instead, it encouraged dependency. The welfare system needed an in-depth investigation because low-income populations needed skills to help them participate more fully in society. Policymakers needed to learn about the process of reform to help redistribute income and teach people job skills Servon suggested.
Income inequality has remained unchanged since the 1920s, and this income gap has created a significant disparity between the rich and the poor according to J. Froehlich, author of Steps toward dismantling poverty for working, poor women. Data from the United States Census Bureau spanning the years 2006 through 2008 revealed that 14.5% of women lived below the poverty line. In 2008, single women who were the head of their households had the highest overall poverty rate. The poverty rate for families increased from 9.8% in 2007 (7.6 million) to 10.3% (8.1 million) in 2008. In 2007, 45.7 million people were without health insurance, and this figure increased in 2008 to a staggering 46.3 million.
The U.S. Census Bureau defined the poverty threshold as money income earned in a calendar year based on age and family size. In 1964, Mollie Orshansky of the Social Security Administration developed a formula to calculate the poverty threshold using the economy food plan. The SSA determined the appropriate food-plan calculation on a family size composed of three or more family members multiplying cost of meal utilizing 3.7 percentages as the dollar aggregate.
People in high-poverty areas in the US lack information on training and access to credit—the main ingredients needed to create economic welfare among the poor (Aspen Institute). A lack of educational opportunities for poor families affect income mobility. Income inequality affects the living standards for American families whose earnings are below the national range. The entrepreneurial spirit in America is part of the American dream—the rags-to-riches is a far-fetched fantasy story as a wide gap remains between rich and poor Americans.
A new intervention policy is warranted to reset the US economy as Americans are lagging behind their counterparts in terms of health care and education. The Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), was signed into law in March, 2010 to ease the cost of health care to those who have no access to health services especially poor Americans. This health care reform is up for debate as there are pros and cons according to this Affordable Care Act.
For more information on poverty issues in the US please read http://gradworks.umi.com/35/83/3583237.html on ProQuest under the publication number 3583237.