For centuries, the world has felt the effects of starvation and hardship. Both have been connected to a common link: poverty. Going as far back as to the medieval times, poverty amongst the people has been a common and growing concern. Today, it is an even larger concern which many nations, big and small alike, are having to face.
“Because it is right, because it is wise, and because, for the first time in our history, it is possible to conquer poverty, I submit, for the consideration of Congress and the country, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.” Those words, according to www.brookings.edu, were the words spoken by President Lyndon B. Johnson on March 16, 1964 announcing the start of the War on Poverty. A struggling welfare state and an alarming nineteen percent poverty rate in the early 1960’s led President Johnson to continue what President John F. Kennedy had started to set into motion. Much like Franklin D. Roosevelt had during the Great Depression, President Johnson begun the attack against economic stagnation and disapproval with a variety of programs designed to create and pursue general welfare and prosperity. A key point in why Johnson declared this war was to give those who could not fully function in society an opportunity to still be part of it. He created jobs that would not only help people earn money, but teach them skills that they could use to better themselves and their lives with. He set up education and work study programs to keep people in school while earning a living. Just like Roosevelt, Johnson’s ideas were not fully supported by the government itself, leading many to find lack of funding or little support to allow them to work. Again like FDR had done with the depression, Johnson’s approach to poverty was not to only fix what problems existed, but to also make a better life for the American people. As Johnson had said according to www.mises.org, “The Act does not merely expand old programs or improve what is already done. It charts a new course. It strikes at the causes, not just the consequences of poverty. It can be a milestone in our one-hundred eighty year search for a better life for our people.”
Indeed poverty can be found elsewhere in the world. Africa, India, Latin America, Russia, China, parts of Europe and the Middle East, and just about anywhere else you can go some level of poverty will exist. Some nations, especially those who would be considered third world nations, wage wars against poverty in an attempt to not only eliminate or lessen the level of poverty in their state but to also accelerate economic activity and development much like LBJ had in America. A more recent example of this is the war on poverty in Nigeria. Started just two years ago by President Umaru Yar’adua, Nigera’s fight against poverty is a collective effort to eliminate poverty at the lowest level by incorporating the village people into the process as much as possible according to www.allafrica.com. Late in 2009, India’s Congress general secretary claimed the nation needed to wage a war on the “prevailing poverty in our country” according to www.hotneus.com. Whether developed or not, whether new or old, the war on poverty has been a struggle against common ground.
