Many economists' pessimistic view of social welfare in the United States is unwarranted.

An AEI studydemonstrates that many economists' pessimistic view of social welfare in the United States is unwarranted and questions the case for changes in policies that are predicated on a declining or stagnant standard of living.

Although it was not even calculated until the 1960s, the "poverty rate" is now one of America"s most familiar--and politically significant--statistical indicators.

America"s most relied-upon metric for charting a course in our national effort to reduce and eliminate poverty appears to offer unreliable, and indeed increasingly misleading, soundings on where we are today, where we have come, and where we seem to be headed.

My assignment is to discuss the problems of poverty and poverty alleviation in the modern United States.

The populations of the advanced economies are today the richest and freest people the world has ever known. We enjoy unprecedented levels of personal health, longevity, mobility, safety, education, and amenity. We can say with confidence that the problems of obtaining and securing prosperity and freedom-humankind's central problems from the...