50 War on Poverty

50 Years Later, War on Poverty Is a Mixed Bag

By ANNIE LOWREY

Published: January 4, 2014

• Mapping Poverty in America

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  50 Years of Poverty

  
  
  
  

WASHINGTON — To many Americans, the war on poverty declared 50 years ago by President Lyndon B. Johnson has largely failed. The poverty rate has fallen only to 15 percent from 19 percent in two generations, and 46 million Americans live in households where the government considers their income scarcely adequate.

But looked at a different way, the federal government has succeeded in preventing the poverty rate from climbing far higher. There is broad consensus that the social welfare programs created since the New Deal have hugely improved living conditions for low-income Americans. At the same time, in recent decades, most of the gains from the private economy have gone to those at the top of the income ladder./...

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George Tames/The New York Times

President Johnson touring impoverished areas in 1964.