President Lyndon Johnson - War on Poverty Case

President Lyndon Johnson delivered his first State of the Union address on January 8, 1964 declaring a "War on Poverty" (Conley 355). Poverty is defined as a condition of deprivation due to economic circumstances (Conley 355). Poverty is blamed on the individual or the economic system. Many factors such as culture of poverty, intelligence, family and social life, and the economy explain why poverty exists in the United States. The culture of poverty argument established by Oscar Lewis states, "that poor people adopt certain practices that differ those of middle-class, mainstream society in order to adapt and survive in difficult economic circumstances" (Conley 359). Intelligence has also been noted as a factor of poverty because of research by sociologists Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray. Herrnstein and Murray believe that what really matters are good genes and a person's I.Q. to be passed to each child, in order to become and stay successful (Conley 366). Family and social life also place blame for poverty on the individual. Rather than putting blame on the economy, blame is put on the social class of a family and their inability to escape the ongoing cycle of poverty because of an individual's 'personality traits'. The system and the economy are one of the few factors that do not place blame of poverty on the individual and society. Programs such as welfare and many others have been created over the past few decades to try and help aid poor families to pull them out of poverty and the lower class. Some have seemed to help slightly, but of course not diminish the problem of poverty all together. So what exactly is needed to greatly reduce the rate of poverty in the United States?

The culture of poverty was brought to awareness in America after Oscar Lewis studied the lives of poor Mexicans and some Puerto Ricans in New York City. This argument stated that poor people took on certain ways of life, different from "mainstream" society, just to survive in their difficult economic times. These people of the culture are not aware of history or other problems around them in the world. In order for the Mexicans to survive they would engage in such things as illegal work, multigenerational living arrangements, multifamily households, and things known as swapping (Conley 359). People of the poor community would exchange time, money, and other things needed to just get by. Just by doing simple favors, or trading food stamps when in need of another resource. Swapping helps out when things are difficult at the time, yet it could hold people back even more if not able to reciprocate back to others. Once these adaptations are taken on, they become a part of their everyday life and are difficult to stray away from. The underclass is the notion built on the culture of poverty. The underclass people are deviant and even dangerous to the rest of society. The underclass and poverty culture form from unproductive actions such as lack of or no education, teen pregnancy, drug use, and lack of authority, or stability in the family.

Intelligence has been noted as one of the factors of poverty in the United States because of the research done by sociologists Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray. Their book The Bell Curve: Intelligence and class structure in American life, states overall that the same traits that make adults economically successful make them good parents as well. Herrnstein and Murray explain that what really matters is passing down good genes to children (Conley 366). The reasoning being that if successful parents that have beneficial genes and a good IQ will be passed on to their children which will also help the children to rise to the top. Herrnstein and Murray believe that "we should not waste any money helping the poor overcome poverty if they have 'bad genes' because it will not solve anything" (Conley 366). People that do not have good genes or a higher IQ will just keep passing the negative traits on to their children, who then will not be driven and just fall to the bottom repeatedly. This seems fairly true because many people think of the poor as lacking knowledge to obtain and keep a well-paying