What were the goals of President Johnson's Great Society?

The Great Society had several major goals. Full civil rights for blacks and other minorities, economic help for the poor and disadvantaged of all races (known as the War on Poverty), the establishment of governmental agencies to train unemployed, generous funding for schools and colleges, and special "Head Start" programs for youth of the poor classes in society.

From a speech in Michigan by Pres. Lyndon Johnson, in 1964: [http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/great.html]

Will you join in the battle to give every citizen the full equality which God enjoins and the law requires, whatever his belief, or race, or the color of his skin?

Will you join in the battle to give every citizen an escape from the crushing weight of poverty?

Will you join in the battle to make it possible for all nations to live in enduring peace -- as neighbors and not as mortal enemies?

Will you join in the battle to build the Great Society to prove that our material progress is only the foundation on which we will build a richer life of mind and spirit?

The Great Society was a war on poverty and was led by lyndon B Johnson. There were several things involved in the Great Society :

• Higher Education Act which allowed more students to attend college from things such as Pell Grants and loans, etc.
• It also included the Water Quality Act which started the testing of water for pollutants and bacteria in the water.
• The Air Quality Act also set standards for industrial and auto emissions.
• The Civil Rights Act outlawed segregation in all public places and facilities.
• Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965) wanted federal money to be given to bring all schools up to a code and for all schools to have the same quality education. The money was also used for libraries and new technology, special education, adult education, etc.
• The Medical Care Act (1965) was a compulsory system. Each pay check was docked to provide medical care for the elderly and the young.
• The National Endowment For the Arts and Humanities promoted creativity; PBS was born from this program
• The Model Cities Act (1966) made it so the cities could apply for federal aid to clean up slums
• Head Start programs as well as CAP and VISTA was also created.

The US now had a form of a welfare system. Poverty levels declined (In 1973, only 11% of the population was under the poverty line). It divided the Democratic Party (Southern democrats were angry about the new Civil Rights Act and started to turn conservative). This plan also created a budget deficit because the U.S could not afford both Vietnam and the Great Society.

A More Jaded AnswerLBJ's Great Society programs -- most notably Medicare and Medicaid and the fundamental welfare programs that turned into things like AFDC -- are cheap extensions of FDR's New Deal. They have directly and literally bankrupted the country by creating so-called "entitlements" that no modern economy can support.

It's probably not fair to claim that Johnson's Great Society programs had the country's bankruptcy as their goal. But it is certain that Johnson cared little for the long-term economic effects of his ideas on the nation.

Like all life-long politicians, Johnson was mainly concerned about gathering votes.

And, truth be told, the 'good deeds done' were paid for by bad ones.

• New auto emissions standards are ALWAYS paid for directly by the car buyer, without choice, without a say, without input, in real dollars at buying time, and in FOREVER dollars at the gas pump. No part of the US Constitution permits the federal government to do this.
• Education funding by the federal government is done with tax money collected without regard to its intended beneficiary. Even the concept of using tax dollars to fund individual tuition payments has NEVER been voted on by the people paying the taxes, and is completely outside the bounds of the US Constitution.
• The National Endowment for the Arts has long been one of the most controversial and unpopular of all the agencies of the federal government. Just one general election vote any time in the past thirty years would easily make the NEA vanish. Again, there is NOTHING in the US Constitution that allows the federal government to even discuss supporting the arts.
• Head Start, CAP and VISTA, all "model" federal government programs of the "slurp at the trough" Johnson years, are signal failures. No goal of any of these programs has ever been achieved, and none is likely to be achieved ever. And again, all of these programs, as enacted and pursued by the federal government, are in violation of the US Constitution.

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tl:dr

Kennedy created programs that would aid public education, health care, and housing for citizens/ residents living in poverty.