Most of the religious simply cluck their tongues and say, "Ah well, the poor we will always have with us. How is my 401-K doing?"
*both are plausible in the next several decades
Absolutely right, Dead. I don't dispute the veracity of the statement, only the morality of it. We will always have disease of some sort, but that should never discourage us from trying to work for better treatments and even cures.
We'll always have poor people in a capitalist system (although usually fewer than in a socialist system), but there are ways to avoid extreme and massive poverty in market economies, which is usually refered to as the welfare state.
At the same time, we need to increase competitiveness, such as through further investments in education, to decrease the number of people that actually become dependent on welfare.
Such things also include guaranteed healthcare, which is a perfectly legitimate idea to someone like me that doesn't like government all that much.
So yeah, while there will always be poor people, you're very right that it should always be society's goal to decrease poverty and make living conditions for poor people better.
