War On Poverty? No, It’s A War On Prosperity

Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” It’s a war that will never be “won” because it is not and was not meant to be.

It’s a $22 trillion boondoggle that currently enslaves 100 million Americans (and over its life enslaved many more), making them essentially wards of the state. It’s destroyed families by undermining self-sufficiency, reducing the work ethic and encouraging out-of-wedlock births while creating an ongoing cycle of dependency. Enslaving Americans was the goal of the statists in the beginning, and it continues unabated.

Why do I say this? Because the statists know that the more dependent we are, the easier we are controlled. Dependency is a natural proclivity of human nature.

The $22 trillion spent on this “war” came from money transferred from producers to create a whole new class of nonproducers, as well as from money printed out of thin air.

The money creators impoverish the people by transferring their wealth to government. When the “money supply” is increased, there is no increase in actual wealth. Just the opposite, new money is negative wealth. It destroys the wealth of the people and/or transfers it to the money creators.

So the producer class is impoverished because the money they earn is worth less, and their savings earn negative interest. The dependent class is further impoverished because the paper money they receive from government buys less and less with every new dollar printed.

Likewise, the word “poverty” in America is typical government doublespeak. When the “War on Poverty” began, about 14 percent of Americans were considered poor. Today, after $22 trillion dollars and 50 years, about 14 percent of Americans are still “poor.” But poor does not mean hungry, homeless and impoverished, as it implies.

Poor today means air conditioning, cable or satellite TV, a home computer, a widescreen television and at least one vehicle. Yet they still get $9,000 or more in government largess — in the form of cash, food, housing and medical care — with incentives to accumulate more.

Like all of government’s “wars,” this one has enriched the banksters and the crony capitalists and impoverished the people. The war on poverty has really been a war on prosperity.

Written by Bob Livingston.