Re: the govmnt screws things up
Donald Voth (dvoth@comp.uark.edu)
Wed, 8 Jan 1997 19:01:47 -0600 (CST)
Conner's comments about anti-poverty programs repeats a common but
absolutely false misconception of these programs. There are two sets of
"programs" to consider. One is the variety of income supports which were
initiated in the 1930's, which include Aid to Families with Dependent
Children, and the other various "welfare" programs. These are not the
anti-poverty programs of the 1960's. The anti-poverty programs of the
1960's were designed to try to get people off of welfare, and included
things like the Community Action Program (CAP), the Community Action
Agencies (CAA), Head Start, etc. There was a coherent theory behind these
anti-poverty programs. This was that, if the poor could be helped to
organize themselves, and take responsibility for their own neighborhoods
and communities, they could, themselves, play a major role in eliminating
poverty. That is why they were called anti-poverty programs, or the War
on Poverty. They had, essentially, nothing to do with the welfare
programs. Indeed, they were the exact opposite. Unfortunately, three
things happened. First, the anti-poverty programs received only very
minor funding. Second, when poor people got organized all hell broke loose
(See Moynihan's, Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding, 1969). The Edith
Green Amendment immediately limited the control the poor might have over
their own programs, and control was turned back to city hall. And, of
course, in some places like Mississippi, the entire state democratic party
came out in force against the black women who proposed that they could run
their own childrens' Head Start programs. So, the authority was gutted,
and the funding got cut more. Then, of course, came the Vietnam war, and
the money was gone. And, since then a lot of right wing money has been
spent making blanket judgments about what are erroneously called
anti-poverty programs, without even the slightest knowledge about what
they actually were.
Welfare is another thing. Liberals and conservatives alike, across the
board from Nixon to the Kennedy's and Moynihan, have tried from time to
time to reform them so that they do not so bluntly punish incentive.
These are the "poverty" programs, not the "anti-poverty" programs.
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++ Donald E. Voth, Professor of Rural Sociology ++
++ Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology ++
++ University of Arkansas, A227 ++
++ Fayetteville, AR 72701 ++
++Tel. 501-575-2409 FAX 501-575-5306 e-mail dvoth@comp.uark.edu++
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