Why do The Poor STAY Poor by Thomas Sowell

Why do The Poor STAY Poor by Thomas Sowell

Why do the poor stay poor? Spare me the fairy tales spun by politicians, activists and media clowns. Poverty isn’t a steel trap welded shut by systemic racism, predatory capitalism, or a government too tightfisted to care. That’s a sppy yarn for rallying votes, raking in donations, or filling airtime with sanctimony. The brutal truth cuts deeper and bleeds harder. Poverty, especially the generational kind that change families to misery for decades, thrives because of choices, warped incentives and boneheaded policies that pay people to fail, while punishing the virtues that lift them out. Families shatter, schools crumble, work ethic dissolves. And we’ve engineered a machine that greases the slide into dependency, then calls it compassion. History and data don’t just poke holes in the excuses - they torch them. Let’s rip into it.

Start with the cold hard numbers because they don’t gravel to anyone’s dogma. In 1947, America’s poverty rate was 32%. By 1965, before Lynden Johnson’s Great Society turned welfare into a sprawling octopus, it had shrunk to 17%. For black Americans the plunge was steeper - from over 87% in 1940 to 47% by 1960. This was no utopia. Jim Crow ruled the South. Lynching still scarred the landscape and no colored signs dotted storefronts. Yet people climbed. Why? Economic growth helped - but so did a culture of two parent homes. 85% of black kids had them in 1950 and a work ethic that didn’t bend. Then the welfare floodgates opened by 1970. Black poverty was down to 32%. But the drop slowed. Today it’s 19% with child poverty in single parent homes stuck at 46%. Nationally, poverties hovered between 13 and 15% since the 1970s. Progress stalled not because doors slammed shut - but because we handed out crutches and called them ladders. Family collapses the jagged edge of this mess. In 1960 out of wedlock births among black Americans were 23%. By 1990 after welfare’s big bang, they hit 65%. Today it’s 70%. Whites from 3% to over 30%. Hispanics jumped from 15% in 1970 to 40% now. This isn’t a quirky social trend - it’s policy with a paycheck. Aid to families with dependent children launched in the 1930s but supercharged in the 60s tied benefits to absent fathers, making single motherhood a government subsidized gig. The wreckage is brutal. Kids in single parent homes are five times more likely to be poor than those with two parents. Median income for single parent families is $29,000. For two parent homes it’s $93,000. Employment’s a chasm. 60% of single mothers work versus 82% of married ones. In 1960 7% of black kids lived with one parent - by 2010 it was 50%. Among whites has gone from 2% to 20%. Welfare didn’t patch the family - it dynamited it.

Now stack that against groups who’ve punched through poverty ceiling. Jewish immigrants washed up in the 1890s dirt poor, mocked as kites, crammed into lower east side slums. By the 1920s their incomes beat native-born whites. Asian-americans today, many fleeing war or tyranny, hit a median household income of $100,000 - tops in the country. Japanese Americans looted and locked in internment camps during World War II rebuilt from ash. By the 1970s their kids outearned whites. The Irish gaunt and ragged from the 1840s famine dug ditches and scrubbed floors. By 1900 they were clerks and cops. Nigerians landing since the 70s pulled $68,000 a year - neck andneck with whites. Cubans exiled after Castro turned Miami into a powerhouse - median income now $55,000. Vietnamese boat people arriving with nothing in the 80s hit $70,000 by 2010. No silver spoons here. Just two parent homes - 85% for Asians, 90% for Jews in 1900. Education as a religion and work that broke backs before it built wealth. In 1900 Jewish kids attended school at 95% while parents sewed rags till midnight. That’s not systemic favor. That’s a grind. Racism’s the sacred cow and it’s got hooves. Slavery’s lashed jim Crow’s boot, red Lining Ink stained this country bloody but does it lock poverty in place today? Not if you squint at the evidence. In 1948 young black men under segregation’s yoke worked at 91% higher than whites. Today with laws flipped in equity on every tongue black male unemployment for ages 20 to 24 is 20% - double whites 10%. In 1960 black married couple families had poverty rates below 20%. Now single parent black homes topped 40%. Culture pivoted, not melanin. West Indian blacks same roots different soil roll in and earn 50% more than nativeorn blacks, with 75% in two parent homes. Nigerians and Ghanaians outpace whites 70% have college degrees versus 40% for whites. Racism didn’t stop Harlem’s Dunbar High in 1930 where poor black kids aced test white schools flunked. 95% went to college - prehandouts. Today’s urban schools, graduation 70% if you’re lucky. In Detroit, 25% of kids read at grade level. In 1940 Harlem’s illegitimacy rate was 19%. By 2000 it was 70%. Systemic isn’t the shackle - self-sabotage is. Who’s greasing this skid? The elites, politicians, eggheheads and paper pushers, running a poverty empire. In 1960 9% of poor families got welfare. By 1972 it was 43%. Today 33% of US households. 100 million people suck some public teeth, costing $1.2 trillion yearly. Poverty still 14%. LBJ’S war on poverty spiked spending from $13 billion dollars in 1965 adjusted to today’s monster. And single parent homes tripled 8% to 25% nationally. Politicians harvest votes. $3 trillion in welfare since 2000, yet child poverty 16%. Activists pedal sob stories for cash. Al Sharpton’s worth $2 million. Jesse Jackson’s at $9 million while their followers rot. Professors at $50 billion endowed Harvard churn out structural drivel. Meanwhile their grads dodge teaching in Oakland where 60% of black kids drop out. In 1900 New York’s Italian slums had 10% on relief. By 1920 they were off it - working. Today 40% of welfare recipients linger over five years. Elites profit. The poor pay. Education is a gutted shell. In 1899 Dunar’s black students, sons of maids and porters outscored white schools 95% went to college because teachers wielded rulers, not excuses. In 1910 Polish kids in Chicago’s meatacking slums taught natives, schools taught math not feelings. Today Baltimore spends $16,000 per kid. In 2023 13 high schools had zero students proficient in math, 23 had one or two. Chicago’s 50% graduation rate turns out illiterates. $15,000 per pupil, $300 million for unions. In 1860s Boston Irish kids learned in shacks. By 1900 they were bookkeepers. Rigger beat riches. Welfare is the final nail. In 1935 FDR’s aid was a bridge. 10% of families took it. Work was the goal. By 1990 13% of Americans were on benefits, half staying put. In 1960 70% of poor adults worked. Now it’s 50%. Work rules torched. Pre-196 reform 7% of welfare moms worked postre reform 30% did and poverty dipped. Italians in 1900 95% of Little Italy’s men had jobs - factories, docks, anything. No net no whining. Germans in 1850s Milwaukee brewed beer and built homes. 90% employed, no aid. Today 20% of poor adults don’t work at all. Dependency’s a drug and we’re the dealers. The way out is old as dirt. First, stable families, two parents slash poverty by 80%. In 1950 85% of black kids had them. Poverty cratered. Restore that and the tide turns. Second, education that bites. Germans in 1880s Texas hit 90% literacy in one room schools. Bring back standards not therapy. Third, work over handouts. Cubans in 1960s Miami went from 0 to $55,000 in 20 years. 80% employed. Vietnamese in 80s california fished and sewed $70,000 by 2010. Scotsirish in 1800s Appalachia farmed rocks into homesteads - no subsidies, just sweat. Every climber Poles, Koreans, Jamaicans bet on discipline - not deliverance.

Here’s the brutal truth. Poverty festers because we’ve rigged a game that bankrolls broken homes, cradles failure, and markets entitlement. Then kneecaps what works. Family, learning, labor. Politicians dodge it - their powers tied to the lie. Media skips it, anger is sexier than truth. Activists bury it - their gigs dry up without the helpless. But history’s a merciless mirror. Greeks in 1900s Chicago didn’t win by picketing. They cooked and saved. Filipinos in ’90s Hawaii didn’t rise on pity. They nursed and built. Haitians in 80s New York didn’t thrive on guilt - they drove cabs and studied. Facts don’t kneel to tears and neither should we. Poverty is not destiny. It’s a habit we funded.