The Bible tells us the poor will always be with us; poor of mind, soul, character, and, therefore, circumstances, I suspect.
This, at the least, results in material poverty in this country, if how "the poor" here live today can objectively considered poverty. I don't believe it can. "The poor" are encouraged to be poor, stay poor, think poor and poor-mouth by the poverty pimps who would be out of their jobs if it was widely acknowledged that poverty had been, indeed, eliminated. This is way I say that the standards have had to be re-calculated as "relative poverty".
Do you live in a proper dwelling, own a car, a TV, computer, cellphone, eat well enough to put on a few pounds? There's still a place for you on the poverty scale because, as somebody down the street has a bigger house, two cars, a BIGGER TV, you are "poorer" than him.
This is borne out of the desire to spread envy and covetousness, not for the benefit of the less well-off -- harboring these sins corrodes the bearer -- but for the benefit of those who would promise to "kill Ivan's goat" if elected. None of the envious gains materially from the slaying of the goat, but it temporarily sates the feeling of "dog in the manger", until it's time -- elections -- for the Looters to again gin up the jealousy.
I have tried to imagine, and failed, what this country would look like today, physically and spiritually, if all the multiple trillions that governments have taken and wasted had been left in the hands of the capable and the producers.
Much of what I write accurately reflected what was materially true yesterday, before al bin Destructo and his merry band of czars fully emerged. Today, many people's actual circumstances have degraded, and the number of poor in spirit seem to have become legion.