A modicum of civility
Most Americans I think associate being poor with the urban Black or Latino people. After all, that is what is presented to us in the media. The presentation is that they are poor through no fault of their own.
Yet I live on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee, and we also have plenty of poor people, almost all White.
I almost never hear about a dead beat factor, that is so many poor people are in that state out of choice (they are lazy), and our American churches and governments support it by donations and taxes. Just go to the local flea market, and see how fat these people are, and see what nice vehicles they have. More local knowledge also recognizes this class has enough money to screw and have babies, get tattoos, get piercings, do drugs, and do alcohol, and do cigarettes. I have personally seen a gal who did not even know the name of her present boyfriend. It’s a way of life, and it works.
The alternatives like seeing really poor people when going through a Philippine village after a typhoon simply are not part of our American experience.
So I suggest we Americans try to help our poor through no fault of their own, and even our dead beats, through the present system. Until I see another better way for change, we Americans are doing OK already in helping our less well off. At least that is how it appears to me on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennesse.
I am waiting for the opportunity for some tough love, though.