LETTER: Why poverty persists

Your recent editorial on the failure of the War on Poverty (Sept. 21) is only partly right when it correctly observes poverty is the result of personal choices rather than society oppression.

You miss two important things. First, the War on Poverty employs countless millions of government bureaucrats, employees, nonprofits, and contractors at the federal, state and local level. Each and every one of those employees receives a paycheck that puts food on their tables, clothes on their backs, and roofs over their heads. That is, their livelihoods depend on never, ever winning the War on Poverty. The same is true for the War on Drugs, the War on Crime and the War on Homelessness. From the point of view of the employee, winning such a war means they would lose their jobs. Why kill the goose that lays the golden egg?

Second, even poor people make some rational choices. They choose to be on the public dole because it pays so well. Why work when there are nearly 100 government programs that provide food, housing, transpiration and other handouts to people? For example, food stamps are supposed to be a helping hand — but some 38 million to 42 million people collect them. That isn’t a helping hand to someone down on their luck; it is a learned voluntary lifestyle of choosing to be on the public dole.