Quote:I agree that putting all of the blame on LBJ is misspent.  His heart and desire were in the right place for that time in history.  With that said, I very seriously doubt that his intent was to have government assistance for life.  From what I have read and my understanding his desire was to help people out of poverty and get them to a place where they could stand on their own two feet.  His legacy has been bastardized by those who seek to have a block of voters willing to do as commanded to keep them in office as long as they continue to give them more.  IMO, poverty has become too comfortable for those in it to seek a way out.

 

I only disagree with the last part. It's not that poverty is to comfortable it's that pulling yourself out of it comes at greater cost. For example the way welfare is on a sliding scale if a working family takes on additional income sometimes just another 2-3k a year they see the assistance drastically reduced. That assistance might be more beneficial in the short term than the extra 2-3k they will make that year. However that next stepping stone or rung on the financial ladder has to be achieved for them to continue their gradual climb out of poverty. Coming out of poverty can be a slow process that might take a generation to achieve, but many families never even take the first step because the system is designed to discourage it.

 

That is the real problem, instead of creating an incentive to earn more welfare creates and incentive to keep wages as low as possible to maximize subsides unless they can double their income it hurts them to try and climb out of poverty.  

---