This is an interesting graph. Just click on it, and it will expand. You will note a substantial decline in relative Defense expenditures over the years. It definitely went down to its lowest amount at the end of the Cold War, but does not even approach what it was in the 50’s, relatively speaking.
The point I wanted to make is we have spent some $16 trillion in todays dollars on the War on Poverty, and poverty is winning.
Let us use the analogy of an actual war. We have been fighting this one for 45 years, and we can list as casualties most of the people killed in poor areas, due to destroyed cultural institutions, most notably the family and church.
The War in Iraq will in the end have cost us about $2.4 trillion or so. That is one sixth what we have spent on the War on Poverty, and in the end we will (or should have) a democratic Arab nation in the Middle East. The War on Poverty has made things WORSE.
Food for thought–unless you are a leftist, in which case your only decision is what combination of fool, corporate apologist and racist I am. Whatever you do, don’t think about the ghettoes of Detroit and your role in their creation.