Poverty

Here's a terrific graph showing the poverty rate in the U.S. during various Presidencies (click to enlarge):


Remember that little ole' "war on poverty" thing that started during the early 60's? Poverty rates historically ran around 30% until FDR. But Kennedy and Johnson really had an impact cutting it by half to two-thirds. Since then, it's been meandering with business-cycles. Bush is certainly showing an upswing which you wouldn't expect during a "boom" economy.

Does this chart also suggest that Americans have given up on trying to eliminate poverty? John Edwards thinks so and this chart would suggest that a poverty rate between 10% and 15% is perfectly acceptable to politicians and, ultimately, voters.

Just to put in real numbers, 13% of the population living in poverty would be somewhere around 40 million people. That's a huge hunk of social problems brewing . I would guess that today's numbers of individuals in poverty is close to the numbers of individuals in poverty back before LBJ. And you know that an awful lot of these numbers are children.