Sneaks - the data speak for themselves and you can look at it as total numbers or percentages - to each his own in that regard.
I am more concerned about the problem of poverty consistently chracterized as being due to handouts or laziness. Not everyone who is poor is lazy - and anyone who believes this to be true needs to get out more and mingle with poor people. It's simply not possible to support a family on minimal wage these days and many haven't had the educational opportunities or the surrounding culture and experience that would allow them to find other types of jobs.
Back when the gov't programs to which Patrick refers were put in place the US was recovering from the depression, people in the gov't actually beleived that gov't had a role in improviing people's lives and the country as a whole seemed to be more compassionate. Perhaps this was because the poverty level was high enough that most people had direct experience with it - through friends, neighbors or recent family history. People actually believed the gov't could do good and in fact, it did. Ditto for some of the progress made in the 60's due to Kennedy and Johnson.
Now, many of us are fat and happy and the compassion seems to be gone. Someday we'll come around and realize that poverty has no place in a civilized society AND we'll realize that the ONLY way to change things is through societal actions carried out by a well intentioned gov't. Someday, we might even look to what other civilized, rich western nations do AND maybe, just maybe, realize that perhaps the US can learn something from others. Look at stats from other western nations - we are near the bottom when it comes to % below the poverty line (in relation to industrialized nations).
I like Dun's advice - let's all do something good tomorrow to correct the inequities.
Roger
