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America’s have-nots: What it means to be poor

By News & Current Affairs

It was 50 years ago that President Lyndon B. Johnson used his State of the Union address to declare an “all-out war on human poverty and unemployment.” The problems Johnson raised — high poverty rates, long-term unemployment, lack of medical care and housing, racial discrimination and limited access to education and training — are just as urgent today. Yet, despite growing awareness of inequality, a policy consensus remains elusive.

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By Editors' Choice

“How did a revolutionary movement get transformed into a bourgeois electoral party along lines of the British Labor Party or the Democratic Party in the US?”

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The War on Poverty at 50

By Editors' Choice

by ALICE O’CONNOR
Fifty years after Lyndon B. Johnson made it the centerpiece of his first State of the Union address on January 8, 1964, the War on Poverty remains one of the most embattled—and least understood—of Great Society initiatives.

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After 50 Years, How To Move Foward In The War On Poverty

By Commentaries/Opinions

Fifty years ago, President Lyndon Johnson stood before Congress and declared war on poverty. His plans included broadening the food stamp program, extending minimum wage coverage, increasing education funding, and providing “hospital insurance” for older Americans. Johnson spoke of millions of Americans who lived on “the outskirts of hope,” and challenged the country to “replace their despair with opportunity.”

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