Increasing Numbers of the Poor: Why Government Anti-Poverty Programs Have Failed

Collette Caprara / September 17, 2010

The recent release of the Census report on an upsurge of the number of Americans in poverty will almost surely be used to justify a spike in funding for federal anti-poverty programs. Yet after decades of increased spending on failed government anti-poverty programs, why should we expect a different result with the next funding increase?

Since 2008, food stamp rolls have risen by nearly 50 percent to more than 40 million, and the number of welfare recipients rose to 4.4 million, an 18 percent increase. In fact, government expenditure for anti-poverty programs is now at an all-time high, as a recent USA Today article reports. (more…)