minimizing poverty

Before addressing the questions at hand, I would like to take this opportunity to provide a dictionary definition of both poor. According to the first entry, poor is having little or no money, goods, or other means of support. It is not until the fourth definition that "poor in something" is brought up. To me, this signals that while someone may be "poor in" solid gold bars, it is much more urgent to address the needs of the person who has an empty bank account and no cash.
Despite some people insisting that there was a significant difference between poor and poverty, poverty is merely the condition of being poor; the two terms can basically be used interchangeably.

That being said, I believe that the government is obligated to minimize poverty. I do not think that poverty can ever be completely eliminated, but it is necessary to attempt to achieve that goal. People in the United States have an expectation of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; it is quite difficult to pursue happiness when you are homeless, jobless, and unable to get out of the situation because of the way society runs (such as when welfare is taken from those who are still in desperate need of it - as we discussed today at Bread for Life). The government needs to provide aid in some way so that people are capable of - or at least have the opportunity to - realistically get out of poverty. This could be done through government programs or through donations to private companies aiding the poor. Since it is really about the money that is being invested, they may as well just provide more funds to non-profit organizations to help the poor so long as there are checks to make sure that no one at those organizations is skimming off of the top and indeed making a profit.

As far as international situations, I do not feel that our country alone should be obligated to aid all impoverished nations. Don't get me wrong - I definitely think that we should help! I just think that our government should deal with some of the poverty within our country before or while sending aid abroad. When some nations have a GDP in the hundreds and most are well within the thousands, there is clearly an issue that needs addressing. Rather than just relying on the United States, all well-off countries should donate to the people of those countries as many governments are corrupt and hoard their wealth among only a select few individuals. If aid - food, clean water, clothes and supplies - are sent into these countries, then their standard of living may be slightly raised. Also, this coalition of governments should expand upon already existing microcredit programs so that the capital of the people and the country will be raised, albeit slowly. Perhaps similar programs could even be introduced within the U.S. to deal with poverty? It is certainly something to consider ...