the main reason the war on poverty was lost was a failing that was built into it. The antipoverty programs were designed by white middle-class intellectuals who had no experience of being poor, despised, and discriminated against. They looked at the condition of the poor and made their diagnosis: lack of opportunity. All the other problems of the have-nots in our society — hunger, ignorance, crime, disease — were seen to be caused by the fact that when poor people tried to reach out for socially acceptable goals, they found their aspirations blocked.
