Review-Journal stories highlight failures of the Great Society

Two articles struck me as I read Wednesday’s Review-Journal. The first was about the death of Stephen Hawking; the second about Las Vegas’ ranking last in “affordable rentals” for the poor.

Mind you, it’s been more than 50 years since LBJ instituted his Great Society, which was going to ameliorate — if not eliminate — poverty, homelessness and welfare dependency. Government mandates such as affirmative action and quotas to ensure “fairness” on campuses and in the workplace were mandated and vigorously enforced. Have those efforts and mandates worked? Not so much.

Since then, American taxpayers have shelled out trillions to combat poverty. Yet there are more in poverty, more who are homeless and more who are dependent on welfare than ever before. The unspoken premise behind all of this is the belief, particularly on the left, that some people simply are unable to do for themselves what is necessary to survive and must be helped.

Maybe. But that brings to mind Mr. Hawking. Surely, if anyone should have needed “help” to survive on our “cruel” Earth, Mr. Hawking was the poster boy. Yet he found a way to overcome his obstacles and succeed in a most spectacular way.

Isn’t it about time to re-evaluate the programs that make people more dependent on government and less reliant upon themselves? Let’s face it: The Great Society has, in reality, become the Great Failure. It has exacerbated the problems it was supposed to correct and should be terminated as quickly as possible.