The number of people living in poverty in the United States was significantly reduced by the War on Poverty during the 1960s. This downward trend in poverty did not continue in the following decades. It is somewhat understandable that the number of poor persons and the poverty rate were not reduced in the 1970s, for the economy was essentially stagnant and confronted with other problems during the period. However, this was not the situation after the early 1980s. The economy was in a record-breaking period of expansion. Under these conditions, it would be expected that the incidence of poverty would have been reduced.
        Poverty rates vary a great deal among different family groupings. The poverty rate among all families was about 10 percent in 2005. The poverty rate, however, was very much higher than this among families with a single female head of the household—approximately 3 times higher. Other demographic characteristics are also associated with relatively higher rates of poverty. Racial and ethnic minorities, the very old and the very young, and those living in remote rural and inner-city areas are more likely to become victims of poverty. The incidence of poverty is also higher in states located in the South and West compared to those in the Northeast and Midwest.
        To deal with problems of poverty and low income, programs should be designed to (1) increase the upward mobility of the poor and near-poor and (2) guarantee a minimum annual income to families and individuals who cannot work and those who cannot earn a minimum income when they do work.
        Over time, the government has undertaken a wide variety of efforts to reduce poverty, including direct assistance for the needy and tax policies to increase disposable income. Many of the federal programs developed piecemeal, and some were not originally designed strictly for the poor. Critics of the old welfare system claimed that the government programs created negative work incentives for the poor and created a culture of poverty. Welfare reform measures in the mid-1990s established a new system of assistance that ties benefits to work and training and places time limits on eligibility. Whether the economy can successfully create enough jobs for welfare workers is yet to be seen. The existence of discriminatory practices, particularly in labor markets, compounds the problems of poverty. The groups with the highest rates of poverty, black families and those headed by a female, are also groups that are susceptible to being victims of discrimination. Thus, antipoverty programs and policies must be supplemented by actions to reduce discrimination if they are to be effective in the long run.