Fifty Years of fighting poverty in the USA and the rate is the same as 1964, what gives? After spending 21 trillion (2011 inflation adjusted dollars) and with a persistently high rate there are still some that say spend more. Failure to understand cause and effect doomed the War on Poverty from the beginning. Today we have not only high poverty levels but a lack of opportunity caused by those who failed us. Horse carriage rides, CFL lamps and lots more.