Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim in CT
"No One said it was "defeated"
You quoted this..."the War on Poverty launched by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 is “largely over and a success.” Maybe I misinterpreted that, fair enough.
"Poor People's lives are much better now than they were in the 60s - not good, but better."
Not a chance. Sure, you can play with what defines "poverty" and come up with a statistic that shows that fewer people are below it, and maybe (hopefully) things like life expectancy are better for poor people today than they were 50 years ago. And maybe "poor people" today are more likely to have air conditioning, cell phones, material things I guess. And hopefully more have access to healthcare.
But again, I lived just outside of New Haven for decades, and worked in downtown Hartford for almost 15 years. Today, those places look like they can't be in America, you'd swear you were in Haiti or Somalia.
I don't think you'd find a single public schoolteacjher who has spent decades in a big city, who'd say that the socioeconomics of their students is better today than 35 years ago.
The quality of life enjoyed by our poorest children, will move in almost exact correlation with the rates of fatherlessness in those communities. As fatherlessness has exploded, so has the socioeconomic quality of life deteriorated.
Id actually love to see a poll done by all the teachers in the biggest cities who have bene there for decades, to comment on whether they see improvements or deterioration.
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You said a reduction in poverty and I showed you there has been a reduction in poverty.
N.H. is far better than it was in the past (and I lived in the NH area for years). Hartford too (I worked there 20 years). Parts of America (Kent, WV, Appalachia, Miss. etc) had no sewers, running water, electricity and people lived in tin huts. Schools are better for those people. Food security is better.