Austin,
I am a little confused on the context of the word "undeserving" in reference to the poor. What is it that people believe they do not deserve? Do they deserve to be living on the streets with nothing? Or, are they undeserving of the social services paid for by the working class tax dollars?
I don't know. Sometimes I look at the rich and consider them undeserving. I wonder how the administrative suits at so many companies can sit back and make the money while the secretaries fetch for them. I would love to make a gazillion dollars a week drinking coffee and making chit-chat over a business "brunch." Oh, and to write off the cost of the food as a business expense? sigh. That'd be very nice, indeed.
So, I sort of went off on a tangent about food. Raise your hand if you think I've had dinner tonight. Okay, back to what I was saying, or not saying. :)
Of course the wealthy distance themselves from the poor. They gate their homes, sail away on their vacations, and drive around in their fancy-dancy cars down streets that have probably never seen a poor folk. As a group, the rich seem to believe it is the poor who commit the crimes, the poor who take the rich people's money for welfare. The poor are uneducated, unhygienic, and dirty.
I'm not sure if we will ever be able to pull the plug on poverty. I work at a drug treatment center, and while I cannot site specific examples for privacy reasons, I see poverty walking through the halls on a day-to-day basis. Certain women would like to make a change for the better. Most of the women have lived in poverty their entire lives. These women have witnessed their parents doing drugs or living in horrible conditions and neighborhoods. I'm not sure what it will take to break the cycle.
~Annette