If You Could End Poverty, Would You?

Over 50 years ago, the war on poverty was in full swing thanks to the ambitious legislative program known as the “Great Society,” launched in 1964 by President Lyndon Johnson. By 1974, the success of the program had cut the poverty rate in America in half—a stunning achievement.

But over the years, money policies in the U.S. tilted progressively toward benefitting the wealthy, leaving the richest nation in the world with the weakest social safety net among all developed countries.

If you could fix that, would you? Princeton sociologist and author of “Evicted” and “Poverty, by America” Matthew Desmond shows us how we can all (and should) do more. Read more in NPR.