ABSTRACT
Poverty has been an enduring feature of the economic landscape in the United States. Welfare reform advocates and policymakers have continually debated the most effective and efficient way to eradicate, or at least ameliorate, American poverty. The current reform argument is that welfare policies have fostered dependence on the state, led to burgeoning out-of-wedlock births, and destroyed the sanctity of the two-parent family by supporting only single mothers. Critics of the welfare state see this as a drain on the nation’s resources. Furthermore, the allocation of increasing amounts of taxpayers’ money to welfare programs has not eliminated poverty. In this sense, many analysts appear to agree: policies to eradicate poverty have not been successful—the number of poor people in the United States has not dropped substantially over the past three decades.
