A New Kind of Democracy? Political and Cultural Developments in the 1960s 399health care–they were, simply put, poor. In 1962, President Kennedy read a
book by a Socialist scholar, Michael Harrington, titled The Other America and
was shocked to read his data and stories of American poverty, and so decided
the government had to do something about it. At the same time, working
people, Blacks, women and other groups were calling for reform from below,
so the interests of Kennedy and various activist groups came together and the
U.S. would try to create a “Great Society” and begin by fighting a “War on
Poverty.”
As part of this program, Kennedy and Johnson would increase the mini-
mum wage, commit more federal spending to education, increase Social
Security benefits, and create more housing for the poor–in short, they would
use America’s economic strength to fix these social ills. Such measures, they
understood, would stimulate the economy as well, putting more money into
people’s pockets to spend. Congress, however, was not so generous, so the
significant levels of funding needed to really create economic reform never
arrived to help the people who were most in need, the poor. Even when
Johnson got bills passed to improve health care, housing, education, safety and
transportation, and, of course, poverty, the gains were limited. Johnson’s goal,
unlike many of the activists, was never to redistribute wealth–give less to the
rich and more to the poor–but to use America’s vast wealth to provide more
resources to the poor, but never at the expense of the power elite.
Johnson thus created many programs to help the poor, while keeping the
ruling class secure in its power. The first major step in Johnson’s antipoverty
crusade came with the 1964 creation of the Office of Economic Opportunity,
or OEO, which would help prepare those who were not skilled, trained, or
educated to prepare for careers. Part of the OEO was the Job Corps, a program
in which poor youth could be trained and educated for future employment;
and the government created to provide legal aid, mental health services, small
business development aid, safety programs, and rural loans. These programs,
based on early examination, seemed to be paying dividends. Poor youth, it
seemed, were gaining skills and jobs, poor children were better-prepared for
school, and many underprivileged Americans were gaining self-esteem and
dignity, along with better wages. Such results, Johnson hoped, would only
increase with future programs.
In 1965, two major pieces of legislation—concerning education and health
care—comprised the peak of the Great Society.The president believed that the