Anyone that is poor can become rich, or at least reach a place in their life that they can sustain themselves, and save back money. At least that's true.
Not all are poor because they are lazy. Some just have horrible, costly vices.
Not all are poor because they are lazy, or have costly vices. They just lack the ability to understand financial management.
Not all are poor because they are either of those things, but they are rare.
Essentially, you are poor in America because of one of the following reasons:
1) You are lazy. You don't want a job, or cannot get a better one because you really don't care.
2) You spend all the money you earn in a mad-dash for contentment through materialistic items
3) You cannot budget properly
4) You are physically handicapped, and cannot work, even if you wanted to
There may be a 5th case - something that involves handicapping in some wild way, but I can assure you that many, MANY Americans fit into the first 1 through 3 categories. Some do fit in #4, and they need taken care of by the society. And society government. People can be taken care of by other means 95% of the time.
I have yet to meet someone in real life that was poor, and lacked the means to become rich. All lacked the desire, drive, or competence to become rich, but they never lacked the means to.
A few examples:
1) A friend of mine that I've mentioned a few times. Single dad, sad situation. He barely makes ends meet, and has a lot of unsecured debt. Problem is he cannot budget, he eats out a lot, and has a dead-end job earning $14/hr.
I've tried, and tried, and tried to help him learn to budget. Even with his income, and a daughter he decided to have, and keep, he could make it. Unfortunately, he eats out 5+ times a week, and this is costly. He has a 2005 vehicle that has ~$10,000 in debt still on it. I've suggested that he learns to cook, get rid of the car, and buy a ~$2,000 car that would allow him to have no debt, and cheaper insurance. No matter what I say to him, he never does it. He complains about his dead end job, and wants something better, but totally lacks the comprehension that other careers either cost money, or take dedication (he has neither). I suggested he learn MySQL and DBMS as a career path. It's free (I've learned it for my job by practical usage, without college). It pays $60,000 a year. I even had a book that he could use to learn it. He never touched it. Once.
How do you help someone like that?
Example 2:
My fiancee has a brother. He has a wife, and a daughter. He has worked a 40hr work week maybe 2 years of his life, and he is 32 years old. He decided that he randomly wanted to become a teacher, so he took $20,000 in student loans to become a teacher. He's now in the middle of it, and unsure what he wants to do again. He has a $120,000 mortgage payment, and barely any income. His wife used to work a $20/hr job at an insurance company, but quit because she wanted to spend more time with her daughter. Noble, but stupid, because they are about to lose their house and become poor. Their fault, or the governments?
I have many, many people around me that have these issues. The fact is that unless your disabled, you DO NOT HAVE TO BE POOR. Rath, come walk the streets of my town, Circleville Ohio. 12%+ unemployment, and a horrible per-capita income (one of the lowest in the state). Every house has a plasma TV, and a nice car. Guess why? They are drowning in debt. Many Americans have this horrible idea that they all need a nice TV, Car, and house, when that simply can't be obtained immediately.
If the government wanted to fight poverty, I think the best thing the US Govt. could do is provide a stimulus bill that forced every federally-assisted home to go through a Dave Ramsey crash course in debt removal. That'd fix some of our issues in a matter of a year or two, as he has a very high success rate of getting people out of poverty.
@OP:
Here's my take on healthcare: We want healthcare that isn't run by the government. Government doesn't provide liberty or rights. They allow them to exist in the nation. If you force people into a specific subset of rights (mandatory healthcare for all from 1 monopolistic entity), your really sacrificing freedom for 'rights'.
If you want to mandate healthcare, go ahead but:
1) Fix prices before forcing HC on people. The government pays $7,700 per Medicare recepient. That's almost twice the average of private insurance. You honestly think govt. run HC is going to lower those costs?
2) Don't nationalize it. We've nationalized education and pensions, and both are utter failures. I don't think the 3rd time is the charm. Either permit it on the state level, or find another avenue like co-ops.
3) If you want to mandate that it's needed for everyone, that's fine. But implement an auto insurance style system that has a roving band of options that allow for a very meager amount of coverage for participants, and ensure that is cheap. For example, mandated HC could cover only the most extreme cases such as bills over >$25,000. Such insurance, based on actuarial math should be quite cheap, as opposed to everyone-gets-everything insurance which would be ghastly in the US. At least such a system provides the freedom to choose carriers, and allows for competition in the marketplace.
