Basically the idea is to overwhelm welfare & entitlement programs by getting as many people as possible enrolled in them. When the government cannot meet the entitlement demands of the masses, the system collapses. As the "political crisis" deepens, the theory is that the federal government will be forced to implement a socialist agenda which includes a "guaranteed income" for all through the redistribution of wealth:
"A federal program of income redistribution has become necessary to elevate the poor en masse from poverty... The ultimate aim of this strategy is a new program for direct income [re]distribution."
Apparently, it was the best-selling issue of the magazine ever.
I initially wrote that I could not find the article, but later I found a link where you could buy a reprint. Actually, The Nation magazine has the article in it's entirety posted on their website1:
If you would like to view the article in it's original format, Google clowardpiven.pdf. Links I found: here & here.
Articles abound linking this agenda to President Obama & his willing cohorts in the legislative branch.
Increases in entitlement programs & governmental spending across the board—stressing already long-eroded governmental resources—will certainly keeps us on the path to bring about the Cloward-Piven "political crisis". A crisis of such magnitude that even they could not have imagined.
1 How it is possible that I could not find the article link previously is a mystery to me. Did Google let me down, or did The Nation website become more amenable to searching? The really funny thing is, I can't find a link to order the reprint anymore!