ABSTRACT
The welfare state is the brainchild of a decades-long advance of egalitarian ideas in Europe, from where it was imported to the United States. The welfare state has fundamentally redesigned society and the economy, changed cultural and social values and affected the daily lives of almost every one of Americans. The 1964 was a watershed mark in American political history. Up until then, the share of federal spending that was focused on helping the poor had been guided by the economic, social and cultural heritage from the founding of the Republic. That all changed with the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act, which marked the beginning of a new era. The egalitarian poverty concept deliberately redefines the purpose of government spending: increasingly, fiscal policy drifts away from an economy with limited government. Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) demonstrates how egalitarian thinking is not limited to entitlement programs, but also defines the design of the personal federal income tax system.
