From across the political and ideological spectrum, there is now
almost universal acknowledgement that the American social welfare
system has been a failure. Since the start of the War on Poverty in
1965, the United States has spent trillions trying to ease the
plight of the poor. What we have received for that massive
investment is-primarily- more poverty.
Our welfare system is unfair to everyone: to taxpayers, who must pick up the bill for failed programs; to society, whose mediating institutions of community, church, and family are increasingly pushed aside; and most of all to the poor themselves, who are trapped in a system that destroys opportunity for them and hope for their children.
![Cato Institute event, "In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State and Raising the Floor: How a Universal Basic Income Can Renew our Economy and Rebuild the American Dream," is discussed on C-SPAN's Washington Journal](https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/styles/resp__img__multimedia-sides-2x/s3/multimedia/2017/tanner-cspan-6-3-17.jpg?itok=fI94CVMM×tamp=1496678689 "Cato Institute event, "In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State and Raising the Floor: How a Universal Basic Income Can Renew our Economy and Rebuild the American Dream," is discussed on C-SPAN's Washington Journal")
