re: Where did we go wrong as a society

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Without it, blacks and poor whites in places like Appalachia would be better off today. Also illegals wouldn’t pour across the border if they knew they couldn’t get handouts. They’d at least need a job

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In what ways would blacks and poor white folks be better off? First off they were poor PEOPLE to begin with, their being black or white is meaningless because race only exists in the mind of man, it is not real. 42% of "black" people in the US in 1966 lived below the poverty line and about 24% of all people in the US did. Those numbers are now somewhere in the neighborhood of 26% and 15%. Those numbers are based on income ALONE. They do not include supplemental elements that are legacy elements of the either the new deal or the great society / war on poverty like food stamps, housing subsidies, transportation subsidies, child care subsidies, health care subsidies and a host of things which are not counted in the income of those living under the poverty level. Removing all of those makes the effort a booming success at curtailing poverty...when they are added, which they certainly should be, the success rate is the best of any legislation ever passed in the United States. The only way that poor people would be better off without those programs would be that they would be free to find a way to provide succor for themselves by any means necessary, something that has never been a positive for any society which devolved into such a state.

The new deal and subsequent progressive programs were initially implemented to prevent a Bolshevik style takeover of the United States, a very stark reality in the 1930s. Franklin Roosevelt did not come to Warm Springs Georgia and suddenly become a benevolent benefactor of the poor and down trodden...he became a realistic member of the American aristocracy who fully understood the gravest danger his kind had ever faced in the history of western civilization. He had a sense of history and fully understood what happened to the Aristocracy when the masses had been pushed as far against the wall as they could tolerate being pushed. He was able to convince enough of his contemporaries of the disaster they were facing and made some minor adjustments that held the masses at bay. Those measures, minor at best to address the actual issues, have managed to do exactly what the intent of the Aristocracy was...maintain their positions of wealth and power. Almost every politician elected to office since, regardless of party affiliation, have managed those polices with the exact same ideas in mind.