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Half in Ten is a partnership of 

50 Years After LBJ’s War on Poverty

A Study of American Attitudes About Work, Economic Opportunity, and the Social Safety Net

Research sponsored by the Half in Ten Education Fund and the Center for American ProgressSurvey design, analysis, and report by John Halpin, Center for American Progress Karl Agne, GBA StrategiesJanuary 2014

 

50 Years After LBJ’s War on Poverty

A Study of American Attitudes About Work, Economic Opportunity, and the Social Safety Net

Research sponsored by the Half in Ten Campaign and the Center for American ProgressSurvey design, analysis, and report by John Halpin, Center for American Progress, Karl Agne, GBA StrategiesJanuary 2014

Half in Ten is a partnership of 

 

 1 Introduction and summary 6 Personal experiences of economic hardship and definitions of poverty

 6 Many Americans are feeling the breakdown of the U.S. economy 8 Estimating the official poverty rate and percentage of people in poverty

 12 Attitudes about poverty and the poor

 12 Progressive perspectives on poverty 15 Conservative perspectives on poverty 18 Root causes of poverty: Economic conditions versus personal responsibility

 21 Beliefs about the War on Poverty and a poverty reduction goal

 21 Evaluations of the War on Poverty 23 Competing arguments about the impact of the War on Poverty 25 Strong support for a national goal of cutting poverty in half  26 Priorities in addressing poverty

 28 Support for specific policies to address poverty

 28 Jobs, wages, and education policies are most strongly supported 30 Reasons to support new efforts to reduce poverty

 33 Conclusion 34 About the authors and acknowledgments 35 Appendix

 35 Methodological note 36 Full survey results

Contents