Well good for you Bobert for shopping around. What I meant was, as a former purchasing agent, contractors get bids or compare prices unlike a person who goes to a retail store and shops. I think Lowe's and HD rip people off after they drive the locals out of business. I have noticed that they are cutting back on their variety too. I saw a program about the rice of HD and at one point they would actually send a black wreath to their nearest competitor when they opened a new store.

Getting back to poverty. I am not a social engineer and I don't know how the fix the mess created by various forces but putting more and more patches on the situation is not working. If a feasible plan to clean up the social environment that these people live in could be drafted I am sure that rich folks and big corporations alike would back it. They are bristling with foundations that while being a tax dodge can still benefit the lower class. Get rid of drugs, rid them of bad influences, provide them with good influences, keep the financial predators off their backs.for starters. I have seen over and over again slums being replaced with decent brick apartments which turn into crap after ten years or so and the people are no better off. Something needs to change in their social fabric.

Like I said the ACLU would fight anything that would curtail these peoples right to self destruct. Like birth prevention, vaccination for cervical cancer or drugs.

Some companies would fight it like the entertainment industry who wants to feed them social poison, credit card companies who want to get them in a credit trap and some others I can't think of right now that prey on the poor. But others that would profit due to their increased income would be behind it. You mention Exxon. How do they profit from poor people? The more money they have the more cars they own and the more gas they buy. How does Microsoft or Bill Gates profit from poor people?

You have to give me some concrete reasons why the rich people and big corporations profit from the existence of poor people, not just some straw man stats from a left wing, pro-socialist, anti-capitalistic outfit.

Do you know that the third richest person in the world lives in Mexico? The next American is #6 on the list. Out of the top twenty, Americans are #1,2,6,11 and 12.

Here is one example. It is admittedly Company PR and hype BUT the money still gets given and somebody benefits:

Corporate Social Responsibility - AT&T Foundation

Our Giving Record

For more than 60 years, AT&T and the AT&T Foundation have committed $1.8 billion to philanthropic programs supporting education, community development, the arts, health and human services, and technology access in communities across the country. With its strong giving record, the foundation was ranked by Forbes magazine as being among the most generous corporate foundations in 2006.

With the creation of the new AT&T, the predecessor charitable organizations of the former BellSouth and Cingular are being combined. The new company will maintain historical commitments of charitable contributions and community activities. One example includes continued support for the 20/20 Vision for Education, designed to integrate technology into education in order to improve learning throughout the Southeast — particularly among low-income and minority students — to address the growing achievement gap and increase graduation rates.
http://www.att.com/gen/corporate-citizenship?pid=7736

$1.8 Billion is a crumb compared to what they made but multiply that by thousands and thousands of companies and you have some real money to fix the problem with.

Instead of engaging in class warfare, blaming and beating on these big, greedy, evil, companies and private citizens, they should be cajoled, wheedled and milked for that grant money and the money should be spent to eliminate the root causes of poverty, not just to ameliorate the effects and do nothing to stem the tide.