Buy essay on The struggle with poverty in the United States

In the United States in 1960 there was significant poverty: 20% of the population was under the line of poverty, and millions of people did not have enough to eat. It was time for strong actions and immediate steps to the solving of the problem.
On January 8, 1964 in the first message on the status of the country, President L. Johnson, proclaimed the beginning of “uncompromising war with poverty in America”, and on March 16 he sent to the Congress a special message on the war on poverty, according to which on August 20 law was passed to economic opportunities, determining the main activities of the Government in this area “The war on poverty” has become the central and most important part of the program of a “great society” that had been completed in 1965. This so high interest of U.S. ruling classes to the poor, was a bright example of liberal altruism, but in fact, it was caused by a complex set of objective socio- economic and political reasons.
Poverty in the early 60-ies in the United States has become a truly mass phenomenon. Even according to official calculations clearly underestimated, in 1964 there were 36.4 million poor (about 20% of the population), whose real incomes were below the “poverty line”. These primarily were attributed colored Americans, the elderly, workers without young people, agricultural workers, large families and families without a father.
As it turned out, in the strongest and richest capitalistic country in the world existed the “other America” – the poverty and despair, as called it M.Harrington in his brilliant book, to “open up” poverty U.S. public opinion in the early 60-s. However, its transformation into an acute problem for the ruling classes has become possible only according to intensification of social contradictions of American society in the new conditions of world development, where socialism has demonstrated a decisive advantage in competition with the historical capitalism.

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Traditional means of fighting with poverty are programs of public assistance for the handicapped, and social insurance for the unemployed and pensioners, that really did not cover a considerable mass of poor Americans, and were generally ineffective. In turn, even in a growing economy early 60-s the position of the poor, isolated from the labor market due to age, lack of skills or stay in distressed areas, has not improved.
For adoption and implementation of programs to help the poverty, the important role played socio-political climate of the 60-s in the U.S. and the world, when violent social upheavals and the rise of mass democratic movements forced governments to make concessions in order to remove the social unsatisfaction. Direct political pressure in favor of intensifying the fight against poverty, the U.S. has come primarily from the civil rights movement of black.
Although black Americans were in 1960’s only about a quarter of all poor, they were the most affected by poverty. According to official data, in the first half of the 60-s very poor were about 43% of black families. Poverty among the black population and growing at its base a mass of black outrage, was a particular political problem for the Government of Democratic voters, who traditionally relied on large industrial centers.
So, Kennedy and Johnson after him, had started the programs of governmental support of the poor, the spread of public assistance programs, with broad commitments in the area of old-age benefits, unemployment, poverty and disability. Finally the State has committed itself to social security of it’s people.
These programs included: the development of a medical system for the poor, programs aimed at increasing the disposable income of some of the poor. These programs were reasonably successful and resulted in great decrease of the number of hungry and those who were under the line of poverty. (Gilbert, Dennis 1998)
The organized labor movement from the very beginning has actively supported the measures against poverty, many unions have actively participated in the programs. Together with the trade unions in the same direction operated numerous African-American, liberal and religious organizations. A project of “great society” had the support of most voters, including that the “war on poverty” was approved by 73% of citizens. The personal popularity of President Johnson also reached a record level of 67%. (Gilbert, Dennis 1998)
But very soon, on the background of government promises to end poverty and inequality, became evident the lack of significant progress in improving the material conditions of the lower classes. a gap between “high expectations” of the poor and limited government programs grew up with each day.
This was clearly confirmed the first congress of the organization “Citizens Crusade Against Poverty”, convened in April 1966 in Washington. The first nationwide meeting of representatives of the poor, from whom the administration had expected praise for his work transformed into an open confrontation of the White House with the delegates. Thus, instead of appeasing the social bottom, “war on poverty” pushed their political activity, and further intensified the discontent.
The most important factor in this shift to conservatism in the social sector was also reduce in the financial capacity of the state in connection with the escalation of aggression in Vietnam and increased inflation in the country. As a result, since 1966 the Democratic administration has committed to reducing the civil appropriation to offset the growing military spending. In the system of government priorities “war on poverty” finally retreated to the background. In the end, which one of these wars were more important?
The failure of the “war on poverty” and the disappointing results of the “great society” in general, testified about the crisis of neo-liberal reformism – its ideological and political systems in the omnipotence of government intervention, technocratic management of economic growth as the panacea for all ills of capitalism and its social base in the form of a coalition of social forces grouped around Democratic Party. The party came to the elections in 1968 in a state of serious internal conflict.
In the 1980’s America had been going through difficult economic times with foreign competition decimating the manufacturing sector: surveys show that most workers who were displaced from manufacturing jobs never retained the wage levels they experienced before being made redundant. (Harms, W. 1995 )
So the 20th century was rather hard period in the history of the USA, especially for the poor class. Though the American government had made great approach to fighting with poverty, and had assumed a large portion of actions, the problem of poverty still existed at the end of the century. Millions of people remained very poor, and even under the line of poverty. And also despite all the struggles against “the undeserving poor”, the social inequality and oppression in the society also existed, as well as the oppression of the underclass.
Despite all efforts, the number of poor Americans remains high, especially considering that the U.S. – one of the richest and most prosperous countries in the world.
Ever since the President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty (the program was adopted in 1964 and was called – “War on Revolve”), the U.S. government spent $ 9 trillion to help the poor. However, despite the progress made in the 1980-1990’s, living in poverty is roughly the same number of people that when Lyndon Johnson.