Poverty has plagued mankind throughout history, yielding various
             justifications for its existence along the way. One of these arguments is
             that poverty is simply a structural flaw created by the market system of
             capitalism. As a response to poverty in the capitalist society, welfare
             programs were created and executed for the first time. And though many of
             these programs exhibit disappointing outcomes and have proven to be
             susceptible to abuse, welfare programs as a whole have helped to improve
             the individual liberties of lower class individuals. Indeed, it is the
             duty of a democratic government to create equality of opportunity for its
             citizens, and to avoid the equality of outcome so feared by conservatives
             and critics of liberal welfare reforms.
             Since racial discrimination has in the past played a large role in
             perpetuating poverty, government involvement is necessary to put racial
             minorities in the same socioeconomic level as the majority. In America,
             African Americans had been fiercely segregated and enslaved for hundreds of
             years, robbing them of property and even liberty enjoyed by Caucasian
             Americans. As a result of this discrimination, African Americans emerged
             poorer than the average white citizens, even after the Civil Rights
             Movement Legislation of 1950s. In response, various social institutions
             and public assistance bureaus were created to reduce the difference in
             economic status (Pivan and Cloward, p128).
             Sadly, because of individual and structural discrimination that
             remained in American society, most blacks, who moved to areas like as
             Chicago, New York, Los Angles, Baltimore, Newark, and Philadelphia during
             the Great Migration never found new employment (Pivan and Cloward, p 128).
             Moreover, African Americans who had jobs during the recession of the 1960s
             There is a lack of sympathy among conservatives. Murray notes,
             "Because it was eas...