Most people at least mouth the words that they would like to help the poor, it certainly sounds noble and is noble, in word and deed, if actively pursued, yet, although much progress has been made especially in the poorest countries of the world, the amount of poverty, right here in the richest nation the world has ever known, is stubbornly high, despite governmental efforts to alleviate that poverty. The best demonstration of this poverty is to look at the rate of poverty of America since the mid 1960s in which as reported by the washingtonpost.com, the poverty rate has generally not dropped below 11% or exceeded 15% over the last fifty years, with federalsafetynet.com stating that: "he U.S. poverty rate dropped to 13.5% of the population in 2015," which represents that: "43.1 million Americans were in poverty," and that the average poverty rate for the last thirty years was 13.5%.
To put it in perspective as to how rich America is, it's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita as estimated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for 2016 was $57,436. Additionally, as reported by financialsamurai.com the average net worth per person was estimated to be $301,000 in 2014, and the median net worth per person was estimated to be $45,000. It is this enormous difference between average and median that begins to explain why America has so many people that are in poverty, as an average is merely the net worth of each person added up and then divided by that number, whereas the median represents, the halfway point in which half of the people are above the median and half of the people are below the median, so when there is such a huge discrepancy between average net worth and median net worth, this signifies that there is massive gap between those that have lots of money as compared to those that have very little of it, and that lack of that money, represents poverty
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Quite clearly, this also represents, that the taxation policies of the United States, as currently constructed and legislated, have done a rather poor job in the re-distribution of monies to those most in need of material assistance in America. Additionally, it also represents that all the bureaucracies and all the agencies that have been created to help the poorest and most vulnerable around us have been ineffective in alleviating the massive amount of poverty that should not really exist in America.
The biggest determinant of why people are poor, is the fact that those that do not work, for whatever reasons, have no income, and those without income, are completely dependent upon the state or charity or family relations to aid them, to wit, that aid is woefully short of allowing these Americans to have things that so many of us that for granted which are: basic healthcare, shelter, food, fundamental education, and safety.
In order to resolve our persistent poverty problem, one could rail against the system, or one might do better to simply look at their own mirror, and recognize that each of us has a responsibility to be a good neighbor to our brethren, as well as for government to help level the playing field specifically for those that are discriminated upon and thereby impoverished, and instead provide fair access to good schools, fair play in the justice system, as well as fair opportunities for employment.
The responsibility for taking care of this disgraceful amount of poverty in America, though, really rests in the hands of those that recognize that each of us has a call of duty, to help the poor, and the best way to do so, is to be forthright in action, in faith, in courtesy, in patience, and in caring; for each of us is born into this world vulnerable and dependent, and not all have been graced with loving parents and the necessary tools to enable us to grow and to be productive, which is why we must do our share to lend a loving hand and to put our good faith into good action.