Poverty provides a good income for many

We have spent $15 trillion “fighting” poverty since 1965 and we are currently spending $ 1 trillion a year ― an amount equal to about $22,000 per poor person or $88,000 for a family of four. Yet our poverty rate today (16%) is higher than when we started (14%)! If there has been a War on Poverty, poverty won." John Goodman

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngoodman/2013/12/03/is-poverty-really-the-result-of-bad-luck/

http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/PA694.pdf