Concentrated Poverty

Some economists, including Milton
Friedman, have argued that Johnson's
policies actually had a negative impact
on the economy because of their
interventionist nature, noting in
a PBS interview that "the government
sets out to eliminate poverty, it has a
war on poverty, so-called "poverty"
increases. It has a welfare program, and
Prof. Tony Judt, the late historian, said
in reference to the earlier proposed title
of the Personal Responsibility and Work
Opportunity Act that "a more Orwellian
title would be hard to conceive" and
attributed the decline in the popularity of
the Great Society as a policy to its
success, as fewer people feared
hunger, sickness, and ignorance.
the welfare program leads to an
expansion of problems. A general
attitude develops that government isn't a
very efficient way of doing things."
Adherents of this school of thought
recommend that the best way to fight
poverty is not through government
spending but through economic growth.
Additionally, fewer people were
concerned with ensuring a minimum
standard for all citizens and social
liberalism.
Conservative Research Fellow at the
Independent Institute James L. Payne
followed this line of thinking when he
wrote that "the war on poverty was a
costly, tragic mistake
[because]...abolishing poverty did not
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