War on Dependency: Liberal Individualism and the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964

1992 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gareth Davies
Keyword(s):  
National Income ◽  
War On Poverty ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Lyndon Johnson ◽  
Economic Opportunity Act ◽  
Rehabilitative Services ◽  
Liberal Individualism ◽  
Economic Adviser

In 1964 President Lyndon Johnson, professing himself alarmed by the seemingly “endless growth of relief rolls,” declared “war” on poverty. Walter Heller, his chief economic adviser, had recently remarked that it would be quite possible to eliminate the symptoms of poverty by simply redistributing two percent of the national income. Johnson, however, preferred to attack thesourcesof deprivation, claiming that the range of rehabilitative services provided by his Economic Opportunity Act would allow the poor to engineer their own paths to affluence.

scholarly journals How Johnson Fought the War on Poverty: The Economics and Politics of Funding at the Office of Economic Opportunity

2014 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 351-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha J. Bailey ◽  
Nicolas J. Duquette
Keyword(s):  
New Deal ◽  
War On Poverty ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
Johnson Administration ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Office Of Economic Opportunity ◽  
Economic Opportunity Act ◽  
Political Variables ◽  
Economics And Politics

This article presents a quantitative analysis of the geographic distribution of spending through the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act (EOA). Using newly assembled state- and county-level data, the results show that the Johnson administration directed funding in ways consistent with the War on Poverty's rhetoric of fighting poverty and racial discrimination: poorer areas and those with a greater share of nonwhite residents received systematically more funding. In contrast to New Deal spending, political variables explain very little of the variation in EOA funding. The smaller role of politics may help explain the strong backlash against the War on Poverty's programs.

scholarly journals A High-Wire Crusade: Republicans and the War on Poverty, 1966

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 382-405
Author(s):  
Mark McLay
Keyword(s):  
New Deal ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
War On Poverty ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
Great Society ◽  
Elementary And Secondary Education ◽  
Education Act ◽  
Economic Opportunity Act ◽  
Antipoverty Programs ◽  
The New Deal

Abstract:During 1966, the Republican Party launched a largely successful challenge to Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” Republican candidates pursued an anti–War on Poverty midterm strategy, which made antipoverty programs the symbol of Great Society liberalism, rather than its more popular programs, such as Medicare or the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Moreover, in Congress and on the campaign trail, Republicans offered well-crafted alternatives—such as their “Opportunity Crusade”—to offset charges of negativism and elitism that had dogged the Grand Old Party (GOP) since the creation of the New Deal in the 1930s. Significantly, while the War on Poverty survived the year, the Republican minority was unexpectedly successful in making important changes to the Economic Opportunity Act during the antipoverty legislation’s renewal. Overall, the Republican challenge to the War on Poverty in 1966, boded ill for the program’s longevity when the GOP finally secured the levers of power.

409 George Street

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen M. Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
Funding Agency ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
George Street ◽  
The North ◽  
Lyndon Johnson ◽  
Economic Opportunity Act ◽  
Eastern North Carolina

This chapter discusses the founding of Craven Operation Progress (COP) and the broad and enthusiastic support it received from the North Carolina Fund, its first funding agency. When President Lyndon Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act in August 1964 critical antipoverty plans and programs for Craven County and nearby counties had been under way for more than half a year. These included a strawberry marketing program, a rural environmental sanitation program, adult basic education classes, and manpower training. From the very beginning, plans and incentives to combat the causes of poverty in Eastern North Carolina did not await direction or guidance from the federal government but grew instead out of local needs and circumstances.

Patrons of the Poor

1970 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Spicer
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
Clear Trend ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Civil Disorder ◽  
Economic Opportunity Act ◽  
Problem Condition

In industrialized societies no less than in feudal landlord societies there are extreme differences in wealth. There has been no clear trend toward leveling the extremes in those Western industrialized societies in which the private sector of the economy has maintained an important controlling role. Extreme poverty is clearly a persistent accompaniment of industrialization in such societies. The current great concern in the United States with this phenomenon, in the sense of its being conceived as a problem condition to be changed, may or may not be indicative that change is incipient. Fundamental change would of course involve new ideological orientations and new social structure - in short, a different kind of social system. Symptoms of such change are perhaps to be seen in the new orientations embodied in the Economic Opportunity Act and in what has been labeled civil disorder. The legislation proposes new forms of social structure for linking people in poverty areas directly with the national political organization. Civil disorder, too, may be symptomatic of new forms of internal social organization stimulated both by the new legislation and by other conditions.

The Mainline Churches and Head Start in Mississippi: Religious Activism in the Sixties

1995 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
James F. Findlay
Keyword(s):  
Head Start ◽  
Mississippi River ◽  
Farm Workers ◽  
War On Poverty ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
Preschool Program ◽  
The Sixties ◽  
Lower Mississippi River ◽  
Religious Activism ◽  
Economic Opportunity Act

One of the most innovative provisions of the Economic Opportunity Act, passed by Congress in August 1964 as the heart of Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, was funding for a preschool program for the youngest of America's poor, known as Head Start. Many children were qualified for Head Start in Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation. This was especially so in the northwest quadrant of that state. The area, known locally as “the Delta,” was dominated by the floodplain of the lower Mississippi River, a largely rural, cotton-based economy, and tens of thousands of desperately poor, largely black, farm workers.

Thoughts on poverty and its elimination

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morton S. Baratz ◽  
William G. Grigsby
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Public Assistance ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
War On Poverty ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
Total Employment ◽  
Economic Opportunity Act ◽  
American Household

Efforts to eliminate poverty as a major domestic problem in the United States have a long history. The attack was significantly heightened in 1964 with the passage of the Economic Opportunity Act, the statute designed as the foundation of the so-called war on poverty. In the succeeding years which have encompassed two national Administrations, one Democratic and the other Republican, a variety of means have been brought to bear on the problem. Public-assistance expenditures have spiralled upward and substantial amounts of money and manpower have been funnelled into preexisting and new programmes to increase total employment, improve housing, provide more and better health care, equalize opportunities and outcomes across ethnic and racial groupings, and bring legal justice, safety and security to those who have heretofore lacked the financial means for full enjoyment of these values. Still other anti-poverty programmes are under active consideration, most notably President Nixon's proposal to put an income floor under every American household.

scholarly journals Dynamics of Health Among Adults in South Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Usengimana Shadrack Mutembereza
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Determinants Of Health ◽  
Health Inequality ◽  
Social Determinants ◽  
National Income ◽  
Determinants Of Health ◽  
Health Campaigns ◽  
Health Selection ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Poor

Abstract BackgroundThis paper estimates trend of health mobility in South Africa using National Income Dynamic Study (NIDS) and investigate whether the patterns of health mobility differs within socioeconomic groups created by income and gender. Health is measured by SRHS, which correlates with mortality and morbidity; thus, it is the best measure of health. MethodsUsing five waves of NIDS and various econometric models, this research estimates health mobility in the period between 2007 and 2017. This study will use transition matrix as descriptive analysis of health mobility and Conditional Maximum Likelihood Estimations to analyse health mobility, trend of health mobility and relationship between health mobility and health inequality within NIDS. ResultsThe study shows that, among poor males, health mobility neither follows a health selection or health constraint mobility trend; the high health mobility with ambiguous trends has not decreased health inequality. Among the poor females, a negative health mobility trend is observed; this research also found that health inequality has not creased. Among the non-poor males, it is found that health mobility follows a gradient constraint trend which has decreased health inequality. Among non-poor females, it is found that health mobility follows a health selection trend which has not decreased health inequality. The results suggest that policy makers should target both social determinants of health and health campaigns to deal with health inequality among the poor males. ConclusionsThe trend of health mobility among poor females suggest that policy makers should target the social determinants of health to combat health inequality. The trend of health mobility among the non-poor males suggests that health mobility will eliminate health inequality. Lastly, the trend of health mobility suggests that policymakers should target health campaigns to deal with health inequality.

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