"Poverty" in America

I found this fantastic article today. I encourage you to read it all.
But in case you are lazy and disregard my recommendations: a few excerpts...

The overwhelming majority of [Govt defined 37 million "poor people"] have cable television, have air conditioning, have microwaves, have two color TVs...45 percent of own their own homes, which are typically three-bedroom homes with 1{1/2} baths in very good recondition... and actually have more living space than the average person living in European countries.

Uhhh... thats a bigger house than I have. I must be WAY poor!! and I only have ONE tv! WOE IS ME!! GIVE ME MONEY!!

The reason the Census Bureau is telling us that we have 37 million poor people is that it judges families to be poor if they have incomes roughly less than $20,000 a year. But it doesn’t count ... food stamps, public housing, Medicaid. All of the $600 billion that we spend assisting poor people (per year) is not counted as income when they go to determine whether a family is poor. [emphasis mine]

Dang! That is a lot of money! 600 Billion. with a B.
1 million dollars x 600,000. each year.
Why havnt we been able to solve the problem? Could it be that the solution is more complex than throwing money at it? hmmm...

The problem is that aid is given in such a way that it encourages dependence rather than helping people to become self-sufficient... Poverty was declining rapidly before the War on Poverty was created in the mid-1960s, and since that time the poverty rate has basically stagnated... All of these programs discourage work and marriage, so that they in fact are pushing people deeper into poverty at the same time that they are giving them aid.

Right. Dont get me wrong, I do sympathize with the genuine poor and down-trodden in America, especially kids. I do NOT sympathize with laziness and irresponsibility.

Our welfare system, like most things liberal, is from the heart and has good intentions... but suffers from a wholesale lack of common sense and "real world" thought. We have a system that financially encourages a single mother of 6 to stay single lest she receive a smaller handout from the rest of us. Not only that, but we encourage her to have a couple more kids to get some extra income.

We are creating an entire sub-society of people who are choosing to be locked into a perpetual cycle of handouts, selfishness and laziness.

Like I said before, there ARE a lot of people who legitimately need help for one reason or another. But we are unable to give them the attention they require because their voice is lost in the deafening roar of the hoards of people who just want a free buck.