"***reality*** that our country has way too manmy single parent households and that employement is not possible in poor households without this greatly needed help..."

I agree with this 100% but I would like to point out that merely supporting these single parent households and making them successful eventually causes more single parent households and increases the need for support rather than to decrease it. Therefore it does decrease poverty in a temporary semse but increses the need for overall assistance. To me, that does not translate to reducing poverty.

The poor must be educated to the point where they can make the proper choices in life. Giving them a saftey net so they can get immediate gratification without any negative consequences is not education but a stopgap measure to cover for a lack of education. To me the carrot on a stick approach means that poor people are inherently dumb and need to be treated like subhumans.

I shudder to think of the future of a society where people can do any stupid, self destructive thing they want to do without suffering any consequences.

Yes, there are business sectors and corporations that prey on poor people, middle class too for that matter, in collusion with the government through lobbying and contributions and outright corruption. I think they should be identified and corrections should be made.

A general overall comdenation and blaming of rich folks, white folks, slavery, corporations etc, is as wrong as blaming poor people for crime.

I get this mental picture of people marching up to Frankenstein's castle with pitchforks and torches ready to mob the castle or people looting stores during a riot to get what is "rightfully theirs". Civil disorder will only result in more civil disorder. That is what civilization is about.

One first step would be to somehow take the big money out of political campaigns. Why should it cost so much to campaign in this day of the internet? It reminds me of racing these days where the group that can spend the most money wins and not the driver and team with the most skill. Money driven politics needs to be replaced with results driven politics.