The economic growth following America's victory in World War II allowed both corporate profits and workers' wages to increase for the quarter century following the end of the war. Beginning about 1973, real wages for most Americans began to decline. Except the Poor Almost all Americans receive some form of welfare. For instance, allowing home owners to deduct their interest payments on mortgages is a huge welfare program, exceeding the entire budget for the federal Housing and Urban Development agency. Social security is primarily a welfare system, not a pension plan.
Agribusiness is a major recipient of welfare subsidies.
Not surprisingly, welfare for the poor is one of the few programs where the beneficiaries are too poor to make sizable campaign contributions, leaving them politically vulnerable. Attacks on the welfare system are often based on false stereotypes. One of the most common is the size of welfare families. Individuals raised on welfare are no more likely to themselves become welfare participants than other children. AFDC has been one of the least abused welfare programs.