When President Lyndon Johnson launched the War on Poverty more than 30 year ago, he announced it was an investment that would repay its cost to society many times over. 1 Since that time, the United States has "invested" nearly $7 trillion in programs that provide cash, food, housing, and medical and social services to poor and low-income Americans. But while the nation was pouring this flood of resources into the War on Poverty, most of its social problems got worse, not better. In its wake, a deluge of illegitimacy, crime, drug abuse, and welfare dependency has besieged America.
The War on Poverty failed. The bottom line is simple: In welfare, as in most things, we get what we pay for. For 30 years, the welfare system paid for non-work and non-marriage, and it has achieved massive increases in both. By undermining the work ethic and rewarding illegitimacy, the welfare system has insidiously generated its own clientele. The more money that is spent, the more people in apparent......
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