This subject to end poverty was the most ambitious and controversial topic to the great society. The Kennedy association was trying to devise a plan for federal efforts regarding poverty. President Johnson was bound and determined to end hunger and poverty in the U. S. while being a teacher in Texas he realized the struggles in poverty that many victims had down there. As this all was unraveling he launched an unconditional war on poverty. A big help that would face this stressful time is the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 which set a group known as the OEO also known as the office of economical opportunity to look out for American poverty. This group helped by not raising the prices for poor but helping those gets through school and fined a job.
Large sums of money were poured into this difficult task. 1 billion dollars in 1964 and 2 more billion dollars in the two following years. It developed the job corps to health the disadvantaged people receive a job. The neighborhood youth corps encouraged the young to stay in school and out of trouble. Volunteers in service to America (VISTA) was used to place concerned patients to empowerment of the poor, the model cities program to help urban areas, upward bound to help poor high school students entering college so they could get back on their own two feet.
This was pretty much a watered down version of the new deal. Pres Johnson gave a speech regarding this issue. This topic was viewed by critics as an effort to get the congress to set up social welfare programs. People would state that this would have a negative outlook on the economy. It was basically split down the middle for criticism and positive criticism. Some thought it was good for the government to set up funding and some believed that this only would hurt our economy. But it essentially helped because the percentage of people living in poverty decreased a lot. From nearly 22 percent to almost 11 percent in a about a decade.
We also came up with the Rural Areas Development Act to help out local farmers. Both Johnson and Kennedy raced to devise a plan against poverty but Johnson came out with one first. This is mostly because as a young child Johnson had personally experienced poverty in his family where as Kennedy didn’t. In 1965 our country came up with a new part to Social Security which was Medicaid and Medicare. Medicaid provided health care for low income people and Medicare helped people to pay for medical needs. To be acceptable for this you had to be over 65.
The poor peoples march was a very interesting deal. MLK actually came up with this idea but he was assassinated. His close friend and colleague fell through with this intended march. After the assassination of Rob Kennedy over 50,000 poor people marched to Washington to fight poverty. This “peaceful protest” ended up being not so peaceful. It turned into an all out violence dispute. MLK’s close Rev. got arrested for leading this march.
Although this Great Society seemed to be working, poverty just couldn’t quit be gotten rid of. People suggested that it was just a social illness that may never go away. Even though the government had stepped in they couldn’t control it completely. A big letdown was the Vietnam War. All funding went into that war and ultimately went away from abolishing poverty.
This could be a very controversial event to debate about. It is sad to look at all the people living in slums but like some people have stated, only you can make the best of yourself. Many people don’t make the right choices all the time but it shouldn’t be consequence with such a harsh environment as poverty. It is a steady helping process to free individuals from the poverty of America. But sometimes we just have to sit back and look at what we actually have and look at what some of the foreign countries have to endure. Some countries don’t have the opportunity to climb out of poverty. It’s just the way of life over there and it’s sad. I’m glad some generous American citizens can donate what they don’t need and send it to someone who does. No matter how you look at it our society is growing more separate and by that I mean that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. After doing this subject it has brought realization to how much our former presidents have committed to this suffering subject and it has helped out tremendously. I just wish our president now could do this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Society
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