Hard work wins -- still

"A 1994 Times-Mirror Center survey showed that fewer blacks earning more than $50,000 a year believe 'everyone has the power to succeed' in America, than do low-income whites. 'Social programs' like AFDC and food stamps -- government programs designed to 'uplift' the inner city -- create dependency, lessen initiative and harm the very people the do-gooders want to help. During a 1977 Senate hearing on the impact of government programs on neighborhoods, liberal Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wisc., told a witness, 'You would probably have better neighborhoods today if there had been no federal programs at all!'"