governments and poverty

So we are talking about poverty whether it is domestically based or internationally based. I believe that governments have the responsibility to help their citizens out of poverty. While it is not the direct fault of the government that some people are poor; it makes sense to believe that the government does have the responsibility to help promote the welfare of its citizens. However, a major distinction of who is poor or not depends on the definition of poor and who goes along with that definition. Reagan once said, about his own Illinois childhood, "We were poor when I was young, but the difference then was that the government didn't come around telling you you were poor." What gives governments the right to decide who is poor? Someone might be poor in materialistic needs -therefore the government would classify them as poor - alas, they might not themselves classify them as poor seeing as how they are rich in spirit. Also as class discussion went along, it was discussed that a millionaire would be poor compared to a billionaire. This has to do with perception. One person's definition of poor will not be the same as another persons definition of poor. The government should be focusing on poverty but what they should be doing is helping prevent poverty. Giving people jobs before they become impoverished, helping people learn skills to help them get a job etc. In doing projects like the ones mentioned before, it would greatly decrease poverty. Any government that has the people of that country as its greatest challenge to help, should focus on eliminating and preventing poverty. This should be the goal of any country that is not run by a dictator or an oppressive tyrannical leader. A government should help as many believe in the pursuit of happiness, or some form thereof, and so should help its people not live in poverty and squaller as no one is happy in those conditions. Saving the countries poor should be a major concern of any government in the world.