Certainly true for some situations..not all...there can be poverty in the midst of resources and that is truly tragic. There are people poor right now who had resources in the form of public education and fought the people trying to literally force the resources on them. So you could look at it as a lack of the resource of a supportive peer group..at some point people are going to have to tackle that monumental problem..peers keeping each other down with harassment, brutality and great social pressure. That is one aspect of poverty that social pressure going the other way could eliminate. There are cultural pressures to dress a certain way that intimidates others..that will just about guarantee anyone will not get a job...and a job is a step out of poverty..maybe help is still needed...

That doesn't mean that lack of resources is not a problem. It is. I don't think it is the only problem, or flooding people with resources like pouring molasses on pancakes is going to solve every problem. There are some social nuts that have to be cracked. There is a roadmap out of poverty for people who live in places where there are at least some resources..(for the able bodied, non-handicapped etc.. get a high school diploma, do not get pregnant or get someone pregnant and stay away from drugs and alcohol. Hopefully get additional community college training in a specific skill field.). .now if you are in Appalachia or way out in the Badlands somewhere...it will be far different. We are getting to the point though with Internet and FedEx etc. that an educated, sober, hardworking group of people will attract work to them..I am thinking of Navaho Indians who sew for NASA because of their sewing skills. One thing we do not do as a country is deliver resources anywhere with efficiency...there are clothes, building materials, surplus food...more sheep in Australia than they could afford the bullets to shoot at one time...we need to figure out ways to get the clothes to the flood victims or the chronically poor. Do more with surplus foods.

One thing that is essentially here and that is there will be tremendous opportunities for people installing alternative energy systems..windmills, solar retrofitting etc. There are chronic medical needs to be filled. We should be training every prisoner in medical fields and construction fields right now.

I am for spending money. Lots of it. Other peoples' money. I don't make a huge amount now but they can have more of mine. But I do not think that alone will solve the problems. It will for the 90 year old, incontinent, blind person in an inadequate nursing home.   But other situations are going to require police force, cleaning out of the $475 month apartments that no one wants to live in, and changing the cry of hopelessness to one of hope and determination. Hopefully President Obama will rise to the occasion, as I think he will. mg