MSW 504

Module 11: Podcast

Conservative Tide in U.S. History: 1970s, 1980s, and the Reagan Administration

Today we're going to be speaking about the conservative tide in American history and we'll be looking at
the 1970s and the 1980s and at the Reagan administration in particular.

Now last week we left off in the 1960s, which you know was a period of great social upheaval and public
protest against a variety of perceived injustices.

These included racial discrimination, the War in Vietnam and gender discrimination. While we entered a
War on Poverty which attempted to cure economic and equality in the US, not all were supportive of
this war.

Indeed, many questioned the great society and its programs and many attribute Nixon, a republican's
election in 1968 to a backlash against increased federal involvement in social welfare as well as the
general climate of the country.

In fact, Nixon's election in 1968 is often referred to as the voice of the silent majority, meaning those
Americans who wanted to return to social conservatism or as Nixon called it, "law and order".

When Nixon was elected he actually vowed to dismantle the War on Poverty programs and indeed many
critics on the right said the War on Poverty was a bad social experiment.

Nevertheless, we do have some evidence that the War on Poverty actually helped Americans. The
number of people in poverty was reduced from 20% of the population in 1960 to 12% of the population
in 1969.

This was in part due to economic growth, most economists agree, but expansions in welfare programs
such as food stamps, Medicaid, disability helped as well.

Many on the left also argue that even more could have been done if the programs had more of a chance
to flourish.

Now while Nixon was brought to office with a vow to dismantle the War on Poverty Programs, in reality
we see that social welfare spending actually increased during the Nixon administration and he left us
with a mixed legacy.

Now, perhaps most symbolically important, Nixon considered passing what's called a Family Assistance
Plan or a guaranteed annual income for the poor. This was different from welfare programs or age
dependent children.

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Under the Family Assistance Plan any American fallen below a poverty threshold would be eligible for
assistance, thus it wasn't categorical unlike the ADC Program and later the AFDC Program where one
had to be a single mother, any family would be eligible for this assistance.

Now, his plan was actually never implemented. In fact many who had initially advocated for it came to
oppose it given that the amount of money provided would have been too small, but nevertheless, the
fact that this idea was even considered was quite radical. It's the closest step we've ever come to a
guaranteed annual income in the United States.

Nixon does other things as well that helped to expand welfare assistance. Quite dramatically he
federalizes a group of public assistance programs.

These assistance programs included old age assistance, aid to the blind and aid to the disabled. They
came together under the program Supplemental Security Insurance or what's now considered SSI.

Previously as you may remember, there were federal state programs and they were means tested.
While they remain means tested, they now became federalized and the importance of this is that the
federal government now assumed responsibility for most of the costs as well as the eligibility criteria for
the program.

In other words, uniform eligibility criteria was set across the states and minimum payment levels were
set across the states as well.

As we've seen, as programs become federalized, they generally become more generous and there's less
room for discrimination in eligibility. Indeed, SSI grew steadily. It moved from 3.1 million recipients in
1970 to 4.1 million recipients in 1980.

Nixon also expands, or more accurately, federalizes the Food Stamp program as well. He established
national eligibility standards, he makes the participation in the program mandatory for states and he
develops revised benefits schedules for large families or for those with no income.

With this we see a dramatic rise in the number of recipients. Ten million persons received food stamps
in 1970. By 1980, 19 million persons are now receiving this assistance.

Moreover, Nixon expands the Social Security Program. He adjusts benefits to inflation. This causes an
increase of 20% in costs. Moreover, we can see that social security is working quite well to reduce
poverty among the elderly.

The percentage of elderly persons living below the poverty line drops from 30% in 1969 to 15% in 1979.
Almost all policy analysts agree this is largely due to expansions in social security.

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Finally, one of the last legacies from the Nixon administration has to do with social services or what's
called Title 20.

Under the Nixon administration Congress creates Title 20 of the Social Security Act which funds states
for social service programs that help individuals become self-supporting or that provide community-
based care or family care.

Title 20 comes to fund many social work programs. Both public programs and non-profits get their
funding through Title 20.

In 1962 only welfare families were eligible for these services, but Nixon actually expands eligibility with
Title 20 and it now comes to serve all sorts of low income and middle income families as well.

Nixon also begins something called the Earned Income Tax Credit which is basically a tax credit for low
income working families. Here, low income working families, instead of owing taxes, actually receive a
tax rebate from the government up to a certain level of income.

We'll see that this program, while small in the Nixon administration, actually expands greatly during the
Clinton years. What's important here for us to understand is that while Nixon describes himself as a
conservative he actually expanded many welfare programs during his tenure.

The other important thing just for us to take note of is that during the Nixon years women actually saw
some important gains.

In 1972 Title 9 of the Civil Rights Act is passed which prohibits gender discrimination in admissions at
institutions of higher learning. In 1974 Public Child Support or the 4d program which we spoke about
earlier comes into being.

In 1973 which you should all be aware of, Roe versus Wade is passed which legalizes abortion in the
United States.

OK, so let's talk about the economy in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Going back a bit, the '50s and
1960s were a strong period economically. As we discussed earlier it was really a period of middle class
expansion.

However, this changes in the '70s. This was a very difficult decade economically. In 1975 unemployment
was its highest since before the World War II period. It stood at 9%. Moreover, while we saw high
unemployment we also saw high inflation.

Inflation was spiraling out of control, meaning that the cost of goods was going up without a
simultaneous increase in salaries.

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Thus, this was referred to as stag-flation. OK? By 1980, the percentage of people in poverty exceeded
the percentage living in poverty in 1969.

Increasingly, it was the inner-city poor who were hardest hit by this recession. Four out of 10 persons in
poverty were living in the inner-cities.

We also saw the growing poverty of African-Americans. Their poverty rate stood at about 40%
throughout the decade and also of Latinos.

Joblessness, the increasing displacement of workers in manufacturing-type jobs were contributing to

this unemployment and poverty. This is a period where we saw jobs moving out of the northeastern
cities to the Midwest or more likely to international locations where labor was cheaper.

Of course this continues today. This is largely what we talk about when we talk about the economic
effects of globalization. We're losing jobs at home in America because labor is cheaper outside of the
US.

In the 1970s more than 38 million jobs were lost to private divestment and between 1960 and 1978 for
example, the steel industry lost 20% of its jobs.

Now, while manufacturing jobs were moving either to the Midwest or outside of the US altogether, the
problems with these jobs, as we've discussed earlier, is that they tend to be low pay and offer few
benefits.

This stands in clear contrast to manufacturing-type jobs which were often unionized and thus offered
solid benefits.

Along with these changes in the employment sector the 1970s also witnesses a large increase in female-
headed households and as we know, these homes are more likely to live in poverty.

Thus the bad economy sets the stage for what happens in the 1980s. In many ways we can think of the
1980s as a backlash against the social movements and social policies of the 1960s and 1970s.

Nixon was said to represent the silent conservative majority in America, but in many ways it was Reagan
who really personified the first round of conservative backlash against the cultural shifts of the 1960s
and '70s.

In response to the Sexual Revolution and the Women's Rights Movement and perhaps on a more latent
level, to the Civil Rights Movement, we see the rise of the moral majority and the Christian right in
America.

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Evangelical Christianity grows. While this is a religious movement, it's also very much a political
movement as well.

This is the roots of the anti-abortion movement in America, the anti-gay marriage movement in America
and evangelical Christians and the Christian right in general seek a return to traditional gender norms.

Ironically, they take their tactics from the social movements of the 1960s. For instance, they engage in
direct action like protesting at abortion clinics and they're also very good at raising money, particularly
through what's called televangelists.

These are ministers who go on television to raise funds. The Christian right, using both the political
tactics that they learned from some of the social protest movements of the '60s and given their well-
funded base are able to come together as a strong political force.

In the late 1970s they lend their support to their preferred candidate, Ronald Reagan. Reagan, like the
Christian right, argues that the social policies of the 1960s and 1970s had caused social chaos and had
failed to cure poverty and related social ills.

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