How much has been spent on the war on poverty since 1964?
Category:
personal finance
government support and welfare
In January 1964, Johnson declared "unconditional war on poverty in America." Since then, the taxpayers have spent $22 trillion on Johnson's war. Adjusted for inflation, that's three times the cost of all military wars since the American Revolution.
Considering this, how much has the US spent on the war on poverty?
According to the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, since the Johnson Administration, almost $15 trillion has been spent on welfare, with poverty rates being about the same as during the Johnson Administration.
Similarly, it is asked, how much money is spent on poverty each year?
The United States has dramatically increased federal spending fighting poverty over the last 55 years. Total welfare costs have risen from $671 per person in poverty in 1963 to $19,355 per person in 2018. That totals $77,418 for a family of four even though the Poverty Threshold for such a family is $25,701.
In 1964, the poverty rate was 19 percent. Ten years later, it was 11.2 percent, and it has not gone above 15.2 percent any year since then.