The Problem of Poverty
Some of the places John Edwards is visiting on his poverty tour are the same places that Robert F. Kennedy visited on his poverty tour, forty years ago. Some have attacked the social programs America has created to try to cure poverty as failures by pointing to that very fact, that after forty years, anti-poverty programs have done little to fix the problem.
And I don’t disagree with that point, but my conclusion is rather different: We tried to cure poverty one way forty years ago. Why aren’t we trying something else? There are roughly 38 million poor people in the country, and over a third of them are children. They represent nearly 18% of all children, and 33% of all black children, and lest you think these figures are high, they come from the Census; they’re the government’s own figures.
We tried one way to cure poverty forty years ago. All right, it didn’t work. Why not try something else? Can we really afford to write off 38 million people?
Well, obviously, we can. But it may not be a good idea. And former Senator John Edwards is the first serious Presidential candidate to offer to take a whack at the problem since Bobby Kennedy did so, forty years ago.
And I don’t disagree with that point, but my conclusion is rather different: We tried to cure poverty one way forty years ago. Why aren’t we trying something else? There are roughly 38 million poor people in the country, and over a third of them are children. They represent nearly 18% of all children, and 33% of all black children, and lest you think these figures are high, they come from the Census; they’re the government’s own figures.
We tried one way to cure poverty forty years ago. All right, it didn’t work. Why not try something else? Can we really afford to write off 38 million people?
Well, obviously, we can. But it may not be a good idea. And former Senator John Edwards is the first serious Presidential candidate to offer to take a whack at the problem since Bobby Kennedy did so, forty years ago.
