ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by addressing the question of what poverty is and what its causes are. It then presents a statistical profile of those experiencing poverty. A portion of the chapter explores how the United States has responded to the problem over the years, focusing on fundamental changes in the nature of the poverty debate since 1969. Beginning in that year, the heart of the debate shifted from the problem of poverty and what to do about it to welfare as the problem and, in some eyes, the cause of the poverty problem. By 1995, that perspective, welfare as a cause of poverty, dominated the policy agenda. The welfare rolls are down significantly, partly due to economic conditions and substantially due to the implementation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996. In terms of social welfare policies, antipoverty policy has indeed changed.
