Poverty, Inequality and Social Justice in Non-Metropolitan America

The War on Poverty In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a "War on Poverty." At that time, scholars were confident that poverty in the United States could largely be eliminated by the beginning of the twenty-first century The Affluent Society, by John Kenneth Galbraith (1958) claimed that widespread poverty would soon largely be a thing of the past, and that only "pockets" of poverty would remain.

What Happened? In 2003, the number of Americans living in poverty (35.9 million) surpassed the number living in poverty in 1965 (33.2 million) Since the 1960s, Incomes in constant dollars have increased significantly But, incomes of households at the bottom of the economic ladder have grown very little, while the incomes of those at the top have grown substantially (still in constant $) The gap between the economic well-being of the affluent and those in poverty has greatly increased Social programs have undergone increases in funding, adjustments, and/or complete replacements, but the opinions of the evaluators remain split We have yet not fully understood the causes of poverty and the difficulties that social programs have faced in eradicating poverty are in part due to our limited understanding of the causes of poverty

Consequences of Poverty Persons in poverty live shorter lives, have higher infant mortality rates and experience more health problems than persons who are not in poverty –Poor access to nutrition, health insurance, health care and information Children in poverty have fewer educational opportunities –Less likely than others to graduate from high school and less likely to attend and complete college –Poverty is geographically clustered –Schools funding relies on local taxes –Poor areas have under-funded schools

Inter-generational Poverty Additional consequences include teenage pregnancies, deviant behaviors, psychological stress Children who are born of parents in poverty will be raised by parents who suffered all the above consequences The extensive levels of poverty and the subsequent inequality that exists in the United States, especially considering the cross- generational nature of this poverty and inequality, raise important questions of social justice

Trends Poverty is remarkably persistent as the percent of people in poverty has only ranged from between 11.1 percent and 15.1 percent since 1973 Poverty has been higher in non metro counties but the gap has closed rapidly Black and Hispanic poverty rates have historically far exceeded poverty rates of whites Children and the elderly are much more likely to live in poverty

Family Structure In 2003, 28 percent of the female-headed families were in poverty, compared to 13.5 percent of the male-headed families and only 5.4 percent of the married-couple families Increasing divorce rates (1 in 2 marriages will end in divorce) Increasing non-marital births (1 in 3 births occur out of marriage) Postponement of first marriage, and an increase in non-marital cohabitation –The first marriage for both men and women now occurs about four years later than in the 1950s –There has been a sevenfold increase in the number of cohabitating couples since 1970

Resources overty.html Much of the information about poverty in one place –Measures and history –Historical poverty figures –Recent trends –Micro-Data