Abstract

What We Know about Poverty

In 1964 President Richard Johnson declared a war on poverty as one theme for his Administration. It was fated to be the "other war," and to receive less than an all-out fight. Though it is too early to evaluate the historic significance of this first national effort to abolish poverty, it is time to ask what has been learned about the effectiveness of different approaches to the problem. One thing that has been learned again was what is known already: the faster the economy grows, the faster drops the number of the poor. In 1959-63, when unemployment was high and economic growth slow, the ranks of poverty were reduced by about only a million persons per year. In 1963-67, when unemployment was cut and real family income rose by 3 per cent per year, poverty reduction stepped up to 2 million persons per year.