The Nation: Welfare: Trying to End the Nightmare

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definition of what constitutes poverty keeps going up, in the advanced country's equivalent of the underdeveloped country's revolution of "rising expectations." Poverty, once accepted as part of the human condition, is increasingly seen as an intolerable affront. Yet, simultaneously, the suspicion dawns that poverty cannot be abolished, after all, at least not in relative terms: even in a wealthy society, someone will always be at the bottom. At the same moment, moreover, the faith in America's almost endlessly expanding wealth is weakening.

At the heart of the problem remain the casualties—of life itself and of the economic system that demands more than they have to give. They must be cared for by a system that keeps them from being internal aliens. This is necessary not only for the sake of decency (the requirements of decency are subjective and flexible), but to save America's view of itself.

* Compared with 6% (by rough estimate) of all U.S. children. There are no certain figures on illegitimacy among the middle and upper classes, or their abortions. That solution is rarely available to the poor and culturally depressed.