The powerful did not care about poverty, the poor, the disenfranchised, the homeless. The economic factors of high unemployment, unaffordable housing, and inflation are factors created by broken families, divorces, single parents, high pregnancy rates, and stress. These factors caused long working hours, working two jobs to get by, less time in household, less time with spouse, less time with children, etc. So children join gangs to feel a sense of family. The powerful who rule America focused only on wealth, how to promote more wealth, and how to secure it.
Politicians claim they care about education, family values, and the welfare of people.
Yet they have devised laws to cover up the woes which they inadvertently created from the desire and greed. They are so busy in the labs, that they forgot about the home front. The powerful have taught people how to kill, and how to hate, they have taught people how to make money, and how to stay focused on money. Now, it is becoming the American nightmare. The poor and disenfranchised and people of color have taught us how to survive, how to cope, how to wish, how to pray, how to struggle for another day.