Since Lyndon B. Johnson launched the War on Poverty nearly 60 years ago, we have spent more than $22 trillion on social welfare programs. And what do we have to show for it? Stagnating wages, an even larger gap between rich and poor, the highest out of wedlock birth rate in US history, and millions of Americans on food stamps.
Almost always the answer to any of the above problems is more funding. More funding for schools, more funding for healthcare, and more funding for social programs across all levels of government. But if the persistence of poverty over the last several decades has shown us anything, it is that more funding is often as futile as bloodletting. Why? Because none of these programs, as well intentioned as they are, address the root cause of our social dysfunction.
Fatherlessness.