Between 1996 and 2017, the number of families on welfare declined to less than a quarter of its former rate of coverage, yet nearly twice as many households live in extreme poverty and nearly 25 percent of American children live in poverty. What can be done to help these children and families escape poverty? Are government programs like welfare the best solution, or are there other ways to pull families out of poverty? This volume looks at the issue of poverty, the various theories about why it proliferates, and a number of proposed strategies to fight it.