‘America does so much more to subsidise affluence than alleviate poverty’
In 2012, the federal government spent $668 billion to fund 126 separate anti‐ poverty programs. State and local governments kicked in another $284 billion, bringing total anti‐ poverty spending to nearly $1 trillion. That amounts to $20,610 for every poor person in America, or $61,830 per poor family of three.Over, the last 50 years, the government spent more than $16 trillion to fight poverty.Yet today, 15 percent of Americans still live in poverty. That’s scarcely better than the 19 percent living in poverty at the time of Johnson’s speech. Nearly 22 percent of children live in poverty today. In 1964, it was 23 percent.https://www.cato.org/commentary/war-poverty-50-despite-trill...