The Great Society

The Great Society

Abstract
Lyndon B Johnson was the succeeding president after President John F Kennedy was assassinated. Being shoved into office at such a harsh time in society was difficult but Johnson had a plan for success. The Great Society was a set of programs put forth by Johnson to help improve the economy in the 1960s. With the percent of people living poverty being very high along with unemployment rates Johnson had to take action.























“For in your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society” (Lyndon B Johnson,1964). Lyndon B Johnson, the thirty-sixth president of the United States of America, was not expecting to suddenly jump into office but when John F Kennedy was assassinated he knew he had big shoes to fill. The post World War II economy left 22% of Americans living under the poverty line (Califano,1999). With this is mind Johnson came up with a plan. On May 22nd 1964 at Michigan University Lyndon B Johnson addressed his plan for the country, the Great Society. His plan required the creation of many new government programs that would solve the two issues Johnson believed was damaging the United States of America: poverty and racial inequality (Brown-Collier, 1998). He wanted to “…enrich and elevate our national life, and to advance the quality of our American civilization.” (Lyndon B Johnson,1964).
But what did this really mean? How would he even begin to “enrich” or “elevate” when the economy was in such a poor condition. To first understand the actions Lyndon B Johnson took when endeavoring to restore the America’s economy; you must first understand how the economy works. Everyday people deal with trade-offs, and the value of these trade-offs are known as opportunity cost. The textbook definition of opportunity cost is whatever must be given up to obtain some item (Mankiw, 2012). Opportunity cost does not only deal with physical...

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