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STANDARD OF LIVING - THE IMPACT OF ANTI-POVERTY POLICIES AND ECONOMIC…
STANDARD OF LIVING - THE IMPACT OF ANTI-POVERTY POLICIES AND ECONOMIC DIVISIONS, 1961-80.
LBJ - GREAT SOCIETY, WAR ON POVERTY
Economic opportunity act 1964 - Provided aid to poor families. Set up an office to co-ordinate war on poverty.
Progress by 1965:
- Over 4 million kids receiving AFDC benefits.
- 44 states had anti-poverty programmes.
- Members of 25000 families on welfare receiving work training.
1965 Social Security Act:
- Established medicare and medicaid
- elderly made up a lot of America's poor
- medicaid- federal money given to states to help them provide essential medical services.
Positive Impact
- Helped lift millions of elderly Americans out of poverty
- Helped 19 million Americans in 1966.
Limitations/problems:
- Gaps in coverage e.g. eyeglasses not covered.
- Medicaid nearly doubled the amount spend by federal and state govts on healthcare in 1965-6.
Education: Legislation in 1965 channelled money towards the poorest states and the poorest children.
Situation before LBJ:
- 54 million Americans never finished high school.
- 8Million Americans had under 5 years of schooling.
Impact:
- By end of LBJ presidency, 13 million + children had benefitted from federal aid to education.
- College education was more accessible (Johnson's higher Education Act).
Urban problems: Inner cities had high levels of poverty, poor schools, and poor housing.
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Demonstration cities act, meant to help cities provided housing. It was underfunded which hindered its effectiveness.
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End of the 60s
There was growing criticism that Great Society programmes were not helping people out of poverty and were instead encouraging them to stay on welfare.
Nixon:
- When he became president, he shifted the focus of federal aid to the working poor, the old, children, and the disabled.
He began dismantling the Office of Economic opportunity (which was established by the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act):
- This was a long process
- Many programmes were funded for several years, so when the funding expired, local groups struggled to keep going.
Nixon did pass anti-poverty legislation:
- enlarged the food stamp programme.
- made federal govt administer it.
He emphasised 'workfare' instead of 'welfare':
- Earned Income Tax Credit: gave working poor with children up to $400 a month.
- This only helped those who could find work, and finding work was a problem for a lot of people.
Nixon had tried to replace the Great Society with a work-focused welfare programme. Even this seemed to be too much welfare for some people.
Carter - He wanted to help both working and non-working poor, without raising budget costs. This wasn't possible.
Some reforms were passed:
- National Consumer Cooperative Bank 1978: gave loans to co-operative organisations (largely in urban areas) and small local groups. Helped the working poor improve their position, but didn't help the very poorest.
Last two years of his presidency, Carter tried a different tactic:
- Introduced tax cuts
- Didn't work as the public had lost confidence in his administration, and was very unpopular in congress.
- High inflation, unemployment and energy prices at the time.
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