Projects

In 1965 when President Johnson started the war on poverty the poverty rate was 12% and since that time it has hovered between 10% and 15%. During this time we spent between five and nine trillion dollars on this war. The reason for the large range is that I checked dozens of sites and found that much variation. Let’s go with the 5 trillion. Why didn’t all that money help?

Let’s look at just one example of what has become known as the unexpected consequences of good intentions. Compare the number of unwed mothers in 1965 vs today and to make the point show how the black community has been devastated. In 1965 25% of black women were unwed mothers and today the figure is 75%. What happened!

Everyone who has had a daughter knows that when she was a teen she had some serious differences with her mother and more times than not mom would say to her, as long as you live under my roof you will do as I say. That was usually enough to put mom back in the drivers seat where she rightfully belonged. Along comes the government and says to the young women or in many cases young girls, all you have to do is have a baby and we will set you up in your own apartment, pay for your health insurance, provide you with food stamps, infant formula and guidance, utility payment assistance and if you don’t have any income we will send you money through the earned income credit plan.

Once the young females figured out how to game the system they no longer were threatened by mom’s under my roof stuff and the number of unwed mothers begin to rise rapidly.

How did the young men react to this new system when they found that they were no longer needed? They responded by “dissing” their women which led to violence toward women that continues to this day.

Where were all of these new apartments? They were built in what has become known as the projects. These places became infested with drug dealers and today are being torn down all around the country. They became what I call the modern day equivalent of the reservation.