Kerby Anderson

It was a grand experiment. Declare a “War on Poverty” and years later celebrate a victory. Unfortunately, poverty won the war. The percentage of people in poverty today is just slightly lower than the percentage in the 1960s when the war to end poverty began. People living in poverty now are doing better than decades ago, but we certainly have not eliminated poverty.

Peter Cove has a bold vision. The title of his book is, Poor No More: Rethinking Dependency and the War on Poverty. He contends that the only thing that really helps end poverty is work itself. That was the foundation of the 1996 welfare reform bill, but hasn’t been the focus for some time since.

He understands the problem from the inside. He is the founder of America Works, which is the first for-profit, welfare-to-work company. He has created more than one million jobs for welfare recipients through various endeavors.

He concluded that many of the government programs were not helping individuals because they stressed education and training over work itself. In the end, they had very little real world work experience and were still dependent on government largess.

America Works instead offers employment services to state and local welfare agencies with the aim of placing welfare recipients in jobs quickly. Trainers work with clients on the basics: maintaining a businesslike personal appearance, speaking properly, preparing a resume, and showing up on time. Clients quickly learn that success depends on their own self-discipline and their own motivation and effort.

Given the poor success rate of existing welfare programs, you would think that bureaucrats and politicians would be open to new ideas and concrete suggestions from people who have worked in the field. You would be wrong. Many liberal groups seem like they merely want to “double down” on the failed programs. That’s why Peter Cove’s book and ideas deserve a hearing.