The War on Poverty

889 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Impact of socioeconomic factors on health

In the year 1964, many people in the United States were considered living in poverty. Times were hard for many American citizens because of lack of food, jobs, and education, along with the racial inequality happening during this time period. Lyndon B. Johnson, who was serving as President at this time, declared that the government needed to take a stand. Johnson thought hard on what he, as President, could do to help this issue. He and his team of executives knew the struggles the citizens had been facing in the years before, so the Johnson Organization proposed a speech to help educate the people of the United States about the struggles they may not have known about. This speech led the US Congress to pass the Economic Opportunity Act, which marked the beginning of the War on Poverty. The War on Poverty, however, was never a physical war fought. This was just an effort for the government to get involved in the healthcare, education, and economic industries. Lyndon Johnson pushed for the War on Poverty because he noticed the little support he was receiving from the underclass party in the country. One of the main reasons for poverty and unequal socioeconomics came from the racial issues during this time, though Johnson noticed this and tied Civil Rights in with his War on Poverty legislation. Though many people are still living in poverty, Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty impacted healthcare, education, and economics.
The War on Poverty had a huge, long lasting effect on the healthcare industry in the United States. Peter Edelman stated in his article, “The War on Poverty was of course not a single program but a wide range of initiatives, each of which required major effort to make it operational” (9). Many of these initiatives w...

... middle of paper ...

...my 43.1 (2011): 199-223. Business Source Elite. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
Foundation, Russel Sage. "The War on Poverty's Effects on Health Care Use of The Elderly." N.p., Sept. 2013. Web. 6 Mar. 2014. .
Humphrey, Hubert H. War on Poverty. Toronto: McGraw-Hill, 1964. Print.
Kenny, Charles. “50 Years After The War On Poverty, Poor People Are Not Better Off.” Businessweek.com (2014): 5. Business Source Elite. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
"Lyndon B. Johnson and the War on Poverty: Introduction to the Digital Edition." Presidential Recordings of Lyndon B. Johnson Digital Edition. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
Schwartz, Joel. “From The War On Poverty To Welfare Reform: How The American Understanding Of The Causes Of Poverty Changed.” Economic Affairs 27.3 (2007): 24-31. Business Source Elite. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.

Show More
Related

  • Linda Gordon's Welfare System

    303 Words  | 1 Pages

    Linda Gordon's article is thoughtful, insightful and highly relevant. As governments slash poverty relief programs at all levels and as welfare-bashing reaches an all-time high, it is instructive to take a step back and look at how the current system developed.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Mama Might Be Better Off Dead

    830 Words  | 2 Pages

    The author also briefly demonstrates in Chapter 11 how healthcare programs fail the poor. She mentions the high medical costs of antirejection drugs and how Medicare refuses to cover costs after a year. This is not a main argument of the chapter but an important one. The goal of Chapters 10

    Read More

  • Rankings of Presidents Based on Domestic Policy and Foreign Policy

    3331 Words  | 7 Pages

    During Johnson’s presidency, the federal government significantly extended its domestic responsibilities in attempt to transform the nation to what Johnson called the “Great Society,” in which poverty and racial intolerance ceased to exist. A previously unsurpassed amount of legislation was passed during this time; numerous laws were passed to protect the environment, keep consumers safe, reduce unfairness in education, improve housing in urban areas, provide more assistance to the elderly with health care, and other policies to improve welfare. Johnson called for a “War on Poverty,” and directed more funds to help the poor; government spending towards the poor increased from six billion in 1964 to twenty-four and a half billion dollars in 1968. Not only did Johnson improve the American economy and greatly reduce poverty, but he also advocated for racial equality; he managed to get Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, making segregation illegal in public accommodations/institutions. He also enacted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, prohibiting literacy tests in areas in which the amount of voters was under a certain number, which forced many southern states to allow more blacks to vote. As a result of his presidency, the poor and minorities enjoyed significant benefits from the more favorable legislations and more successful American legislation.

    Read More

  • Review of Kotz's Book, Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Laws That Changed America.

    1276 Words  | 3 Pages

    Regardless of the book's subtitle, it focuses on only three laws passed throughout the Johnson presidency, while failing to discuss others that are equally important to LBJ's legacy. Among those mostly ignored are the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, the Social Security Act of 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Meanwhile, Kotz only outwardly addresses Johnson's nomination of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court and the impact this appointment has had on the determining of public policy.

    Read More

  • All Americans Have a Right to Health Care

    1543 Words  | 4 Pages

    Reese, Philip. Public Agenda Foundation. The Health Care Crisis: Containing Costs, Expanding Coverage. New York: McGraw, 2002.

    Read More

  • Criminalization of Poverty in Capitalist America

    3042 Words  | 7 Pages

    Trattner, Walter I. From Poor Law to Welfare State: A History of Social Welfare in America, New York: Free Press, 1989.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay: The United States is not The Greatest Country in The World

    1772 Words  | 4 Pages

    Despite the established health care facilities in the United States, most citizens do not have access to proper medical care. We must appreciate from the very onset that a healthy and strong nation must have a proper health care system. Such a health system should be available and affordable to all. The cost of health services is high. In fact, the ...

    Read More

  • Quality Analysis: Cost And Quality In Health Care

    963 Words  | 2 Pages

    spends about 15% of its gross domestic product on healthcare, thereby making it the largest sector of the economy” (Goldman, D., & McGlynn, E., 2005). “Americans are not healthier than some of the other developed nations, regardless of these extensive costs” (WHO, 2010). “Almost 40 million Americans are uninsured and about 18% of Americans under the age of 65 receive half of the recommended healthcare services” (Goldman, D., & McGlynn, E., 2005). “Though, quality of care was noted not to vary much in cities with respect to lack of insurance, poverty, penetration of managed care and availability of physicians and hospital beds” (Goldman, D., & McGlynn, E., 2005).

    Read More

  • Economic Implications of National and Private Health Insurance in the United States

    2475 Words  | 5 Pages

    One reason health care costs are increasing are due to an increase reliance on the emergency department (ED) where many medical conditions could have been prevented or directed to a low-cost health clinic for care. Not only does this take away human capital for people who have actual medical emergencies, but also wastes hospital resources where many of these visit are billed frequently to Medicare, Medicaid, and low-cost health insurance (Choudhry et al., 2007). This problem can be attributed to people who live under the poverty line that cannot afford healthcare or qualify for Medicare and Medicaid. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2012 report, the official poverty rate was at a staggering 15.0 percent, or approximately 46.5 million people are in poverty with an income of less ...

    Read More

  • Poverty and Classism

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to Schwartz-Nobel, America will lose as much as 130 billion in future productive capacity for every year that 14.5 American children continue to live in poverty (Koppelman and Goodhart, 2007). Sadly the seriousness of poverty is still often clouded by myths and misunderstandings by society at large. This essay studies the issue of poverty and classism in today's society.

    Read More

  • American’s Health-Care Crisis

    779 Words  | 2 Pages

    American’s health-care system is in turmoil. According to Bradley and Taylor (2013), “we spend nearly twice what other industrialized countries spend on health-care” (para.2). See figure 1;

    Read More

  • Healthcare Policy Essay

    1501 Words  | 4 Pages

    Healthcare Policy has been through many ups and downs over the years. The first United States legislature to involve healthcare dates back to 1798, when “The Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen” was adopted. This approach is not very different in how healthcare works today. The act called for a 200 cent tax on seamen in order to pay for their health care. But it wasn’t until 1912, when President Theodore Roosevelt campaigned on a platform to adopt a single national health service. Finally a program called Medicaid was adopted to insure low income families, and in 1966, Medicare was adopted, guaranteeing health care for those over the age of 65 who paid into the system. Finally, The Affordable Health Care for America Act was introduced in 2009, and while it has changed and been revised a few times since then, it is th...

    Read More

  • Paul Ryan War On Poverty

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

    Way on Poverty is a sensitive subject, but is one of the needs that needs to be discussed more especially when you or your campaign is running for president. Paul Ryan’s speech War on Poverty, was given at Cleveland State University to the generations who are eligible to vote. Ryan wanted to know that the war on poverty can be overcome. In Paul Ryan’s speech on poverty, Ryan created an influential speech by using emotional appeals to convince his listener that poverty needs to end, reiterating the idea of poverty, and restating the statistics on poverty.

    Read More

  • Socioeconomic Status and Health Care

    1780 Words  | 4 Pages

    Niewczyk, Paulette M., and Jamson S. Lwebuga-Mukasa. "Is Poverty the Main Factor Contributing to Health Care Disparities? An Investigation of Individual Level Factors Contributing to Health Care Disparities."WWW.JEHONLINE.COM. THE JOURNAL OF EQUITY IN HEALTH, Oct. 2008. Web. 7 May 2014.

    Read More

  • Poverty In the Philippines

    2760 Words  | 6 Pages

    ... I think this project has affected me in a way that I will remember for the rest of my life. Works Cited American Poverty and Welfare Reform. 2002. The 'Secondary' of the Women's Policy Research - Research. http://www.oycf.org/Perspectives/12_063001/American_poverty_reform.htm>.

    Read More

More about The War on Poverty

Open Document