The History of Welfare Spending in America Is... Well, It's Pretty Scary

Chart of the Week #1

Starting today, we're rolling out something new called “Chart of the Week.” We’ll do our best to do this column every week, aiming for Fridays like today.

It's going to feature a chart or two that we’ve come across ourselves or received from our followers, which we think are worth sharing with you, our dear reader.

Today's chart gives us a peek at the history of total welfare spending in America. And honestly, it’s pretty scary to see just how dependent Americans have become on the government.

You may think it’s nothing new, but seeing the visual comparison of where we were just decades ago versus now is quite striking.

Since Lyndon Johnson kicked off the War on Poverty in 1964, welfare spending has taken off. Back then, federal and state means-tested spending was just $10.6 billion. Fast forward to 2023, and it's ballooned to over $1.3 trillion—a more than hundredfold increase.

Admittedly, some of the rise in welfare spending comes from inflation, thanks to non-stop money printing. If we account for that, spending back in 1964 was about $91.9 billion. You can see that in the chart below.

This means that, even after adjusting for inflation, total welfare spending has shot up more than 1,320%—over fourteen times—since the War on Poverty kicked off. It's gone from $91.9 billion in 1964 to over $1.3 trillion in 2023.

Note that spending remained relatively flat during the Reagan era of the 1980s. Once Reagan was out of office, though, the numbers started climbing fast, nearly doubling before the mid-'90s welfare reform. That reform was supposed to cut down on welfare dependency by encouraging work and marriage, but it wasn’t exactly a success. Welfare spending has actually nearly tripled from 1996 to now.

But surely, after all those trillions of dollars spent, the government has managed to completely obliterate poverty, right? Well, you probably already know the answer to that one.

Have a lovely weekend!

Lau Vegys