[Waluigi]

I think it's easy to say that the poorest of the poor in the U.S. still aren't nearly as poor as the poor people in other countries. However, the quality of their "relative poorness" doesn't mean it's okay for them to suffer.

Education can be a way out of poverty, but not by itself. Education, combined with opportunity and desire, are what lift people out of a lower social class. Unfortunately, that combination is often hard to come by.

A poor education hinders somebody before they're even old enough to work. Some working poor have to work 2-3 jobs to support themselves, and have no opportunity to further their education because they're working 16 hours a day.

However, I would submit that, more often than it's desirable to admit, a lack of ambition to move up the social ladder is what causes people to stay where they are.

A friend of mine runs a little convenience store. He said the same people come in once a month to cash their welfare checks and drop half of it on cigarettes and lottery tickets. These people are never going to be off social assistance, because they have no desire to be, and probably don't have the aptitude to boot.

There is nothing that government can do to help some people, because they simply don't want to be helped.

The question becomes: what should government do (if anything) to help those that actually want to be helped? Working poor jobs (those paying, let's say, less than $10/hr.) usually don't provide tuition assistance, or an opportunity for advancement. But people need to work. They can't all work for the government. So what can be done by the government?