Galt's Gulch

Sowell on The War On Poverty

Posted by khalling 10 years, 6 months ago to Economics
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  • Posted by $ Maphesdus 10 years, 6 months ago
    Let's break it down into a multiple choice question, shall we?

    Which of the following is primarily responsible for the destruction of the African American family?

    A) The Civil Rights Act of 1964
    B) The War on Poverty, which started in 1964
    C) The War on Drugs, which started in 1970
    D) A and B
    E) B and C
    F) All of the above
    G) None of the above

    According to Thomas Sowell, the answer would be D, but I'm personally more inclined to believe that the answer is E.
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  • Posted by $ Maphesdus 10 years, 6 months ago
    Hmmm, he does make some good points, though there are still some certain arguments he uses which I would need more information on first before I could make any final judgement.

    However, one very glaring mistake which I think he makes is to associate the War on Poverty program with the Civil Rights Act, simply because they both happened to be implemented in 1964.

    If two completely separate pieces of government legislation (one good and one bad) are both implemented in the same year, it would be extremely unwise to attribute the effects of the bad piece of legislation to the good piece, or to say that both pieces of legislation are equally responsible for the bad effects when in reality only one of them is.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 6 months ago
    Just because we screwed up the war on poverty doesn't mean we shouldn't try to do it right in some form.

    I wonder what would happen if the gov't stopped the war on drugs and anti-poverty programs. Then drugs would be cheap, and a dangerous but lucrative job (drug dealer) would be gone for the poor.

    Are we holding are finger in the dike, keeping the poor for dying of drugs and keeping them from misspending their foodstamps? Or if we just let go, would they everyone mostly find their own customized solution to their individual problems?

    I hope the answer is the a latter, and we could just let go and stop messing with the poor and the human spirit would make things better on its own.
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