As always, an excellent, thoughtful, and provocative article from this author.

I would say that part of the problem with the War on Poverty was that it was viewed in a racist nation as a handout to people of African heritage. That resulted in, for one thing, a 'marriage penalty': to keep the 'Black bucks' from getting their hands on the money, the program was designed to encourage single motherhood--and the more children, the more money. The effects of that could surely have been foreseen, had the program's initiators not been blinded by racism.

Meanwhile, totally different, non-racist, universal solution for poverty is available: "For Crying Out Loud, Accept That A Solution Actually Exists" (a "3 min read" — including options for further reading — here in Medium).