To eradicate poverty we need to get ahold of the medical issues that are beyond most Americans afford ability. In Canada they have Medical for the whole country and it is free. It comes out of everyone's pay. Our health care cost are not even totally affordable for those that receive it from job supplemented insurance.
Our schools need to change and teach the child out of the three traditional methods.I.Q. test do not work. there are many more types of intelligence that are totally ignored. Which enables the system to pass up the needs of many children. If we were to implement the Howard Garner 7 types of intelligence and teach the whole child this would greatly improve the chances for many children to finish school and go to college in his or her area of need and it would enable further in there choosing the correct placement in the work force.

We need to make corporations have to pay larger taxes so there ratio of profit is more evenly distributed. As each of us earns more money the I.R.S. takes out more money because we are put in a larger tax bracket this should apply to large corporations as well.

If someone is displaced from his or her job and they need a hand up. We should have a better mentor system to give them a hand up and learn new skills. Even the homeless. there are so many buildings ideally in need of reconstruction, if we were to reconstruct them into into apartments with a life style mentor that trains the person on life style improvement and also helps them over a space of time with job skills and medical issues as well as personal issues. We would not have a homeless issue.

If social workers were trained in life skills building and had places to send those in need instead of sending their clients blindly to dead end back breaking jobs. We would also end what some believe to be welfare dependance. The problem is systemly made, reward the rich and keep taking from the poor until the poor do not have anything more to take. Do we really believe Bill gates needs another tax break.I doubt he does. What about the loyal workers of Eron who lost there 401k.

This is just an example. But,We need to make corporations just as liable for their theft as we do the man who lost his job and broke into 7-11 there is no difference theft is theft.

The legislature just gave themselves a huge raise this should have been vetoed as our country is in a recession. Even the president is in realization of Oregon's very high unemployment. Yet, we still have very high needs that our not met for our hungry and poor here. We claim we are one Nation indivisible. But it is to very visible to everyone those that get breaks and those that don't.Our very system is at a breaking point. there our more poor than ever in our history.

Immigration is another neglected area. We need to say no until all our people have something that sustains them.

Last christmas just a bit prior to we were on our way to work we had made a nice lunch not great mind you but good. My husband and I saw a homeless man walking in the rain. We stopped and looked at each other. We decided the christmas cookies we had made and brought were needed much more by him then ourselves. The cookies made that mans morning. Sometimes just reaching out with a bit of instruction to someone is just what they need to get back on the track they need. It may just bring a smile to someone's face. It is with all our efforts that we can eradicate the problems of the poor. It takes but a moment to give knowledge that can raise someone higher than we thought they could rise.Is it someone else's responsibility I think not the top ten of our society are not praise worthy they give nothing back. There claim is they worked hard and built there empire of wealth the truth is it took thousands of poor and needy people to make them who they are.

I think to myself when I eat a banana how many people did it take to get this to me? Well first someone had to plant the banana tree. and someone had to keep insects from it. then someone to watch it's growth, then another to harvest, another after that to load it. then another to unload it then to auction the crop. package it to ship to the warehouse and another truck to bring it to the store ,another to unload it. A stocker to stock it.Me to pick it out, then a clerk to weigh it and have me pay for it while its packed in my shopping bags all for me to eat one banana. There are probably more or less steps. However it takes allot of people to make one simple task get accomplished. It will take a collective effort from all of us to eradicate the problems of our ever raising problem each of us might face with being poor or poor as a factor in our country.