Sponsored link
Thursday, April 3, 2025

Sponsored link

UncategorizedSan Francisco’s War on Poor People

San Francisco’s War on Poor People

By Tim Redmond

The federal War on Poverty is 50 years old, and a lot of the news media reports are calling it a failure: The poverty rate today is not much lower than it was when Lyndon Johnston started his famous social programs in 1964. But that’s something of a misleading statistic, suggesting that there’s nothing the federal government can do about poverty.

Look at the data in the chart here. The poverty rate in the US dropped pretty dramatically after 1964, from close to 20 percent to as low as my 11 percent in the mid-1970s. There were 35 million people living in poverty in the early 1960s; a decade later, after huge spending by the feds on housing, welfare, and urban development, that number was below 25 million.

In other words, the War on Poverty was working. Until the Age of Reagan.

After the Republicans cut taxes on the rich and decimated Great Society programs, both the poverty rate and the numbers of people in poverty started to rise again. Now, with the marginal tax rate less than half of what it was in 1970, and the federal budget for social programs that fight poverty reduced to a tiny fraction of what we spend on, say, wars, it’s no surprise that the gains this country made between 1964 and 1979 have vanished.

What failed wasn’t the War on Poverty; it was ending the War on Poverty.

At the same time, what hasn’t ended – and if anything, is increasing – is the War on Poor People in San Francisco. (more after the break)

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our FacebookTwitter, and Instagram

Marke B.
Marke B.
Marke Bieschke is the publisher and arts and culture editor of 48 Hills. He co-owns the Stud bar in SoMa. Reach him at marke (at) 48hills.org, follow @supermarke on Twitter.

Sponsored link

Sponsored link

Featured

Finally, some talk about local taxes—but not in a progressive direction

Airbnb wants a tax refund. Wiener wants sales taxes. Oakland sales tax isn't polling well. But taxing the rich seems like a popular idea.

Listen to the rank and file: Political lessons from something I missed 25 years ago

The Democratic leadership in Congress needs to learn from a big mistake I made as a union organizer.

Andrea Bergen collages a post-apocalyptic world whose creatures feast on scraps

Will these electric raccoons and possums inherit our beleaguered Earth?

You might also likeRELATED