Poverty

A Spanish photographer makes some interesting observations about poverty. And the conclusion is correct...there will be no solution to poverty. Partially because there are some people who have interests OTHER than escaping poverty.
One thing the debate over poverty often overlooks is it assigns an arbitrary value to NOT being poverty stricken and then forces everyone else to meet or exceed that value whether they agree or not.
It will be many, many years before I forget the guy Dad once tried to help. He was living in a cardboard box down by the Boise mill in St. Helens. Dad tried to get him to move in with us. I was there for the conversation.
Essentially the guy (and I wish i could remember his name...Dad might) said, "Thanks, but I prefer it here. I have no responsibilities. I don't have to bathe, I eat when I want, don't have to punch a clock" and so forth. He was a guy who was homeless deliberately and by choice.
A few months later he had a family member die. He cleaned up because he had to, went back was responsible...getting a job, bathing, etc. He wrote Dad a letter telling him how much he missed his old life and wished he was back in that cardboard box.
Now, doubtless he is a small,small number of the homeless population and many of them are in those circumstances not by preference or choice but rather because they have to be. The truth is, however, the number of people there because they choose to be or becuase they would rather drink than do what it takes to not be in poverty or would rather gamble or lay in bed when they should be at work or would rather play the lottery or chose to ignore school or whatever...the sheer numbers of people who are in poverty because they made those type of choices is so large that it will never be possible to eradicate poverty completely no matter how much we want to.
Not that we shouldn't try...but the reality is, people themselves make it impossible.