Analyzing the War on Poverty, theories of the culture of poverty and the underclass, the effects of Reaganomics, and the 1996 welfare reform, Stricker demonstrates that most antipoverty approaches are futile without the presence (or creation) of good jobs. He argues that a serious public debate is needed about the job situation; social programs must be redesigned, a national health care program must be developed, and economic inequality must be addressed. If we actually want to reduce poverty significantly, he says, we must expand decent jobs and government income programs, redirecting national resources away from the rich and toward those with low incomes. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Preface	xi
Introduction	1
Part 1 The Golden Age of Laissez-Faire?: The 50s
1 The 1950s: Limited Government, Limited Affluence	9
Part 2 Wars on Poverty: The 60s
2 Planning the War on Poverty: Fixing the Poor or Fixing the Economy?	35
3 Evaluating the War on Poverty: The Conservatism of Liberalism	61
4 Moynihan, the Dissenters, and the Racialization of Poverty: A Liberal Turning Point That Did Not Turn	83
5 Statistics and Theory of Unemployment and Poverty: Lessons from the 60s and the Postwar Era	101
Part 3 Toward a War on the Poor: The 70s and 80s
6 The Politics of Poverty and Welfare in the 70s: From Nixon to Carter	117
7 Too Much Work Ethic: One Reason Poverty Rates Stopped Falling in the 70s, and the Stories That Were Told about It	141
8 Cutting Poverty or Cutting Welfare: Conservatives Attack Liberalism	157
9 Reagan, Reaganomics, and the American Poor, 1980-1992	183
Part 4 The Poor You Will Always Have with You-If You Don't Do the Right Thing: 1993-Present
10 Staying Poor in the Clinton Boom: Welfare Reform, the Nearby Labor Force, and the Limits of the Work Ethic	209
11 Bush and Beyond: On Solving and Not Solving Poverty	231
Appendix 1 Unemployment, Poverty, Earnings, and Household Structure	245
Figure A.1 Annual Official Civilian Unemployment Rate and Author's Estimate of Real Rate, 1959-2005	245
Figure A.2 U.S. Poverty Rates, 1950-2004	246
Figure A.3 Real Weekly Earnings of Production and Nonsupervisory Workers in the Private Sector, 1964-2005	246
Figure A.4 Percentage of Poor by Household Type, 1959, 1979, 1998	247
Appendix 2 Groups Often Left Out of Antipoverty Discussions in the 60s and Today	249
Notes	251
Bibliographical Essay	325
Index	329

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