Not a simple issue ... but one problem area is the poor not having kids they can't support financially or in other ways. Something I notice is that people with decent education tend to 'think' about whether they can have (i.e. afford) to bring another child into the world. On the flip side ... many of those who live in poverty just have sex and out pops a kid 9 months later. And those kids have little chance of success later in life since the parent (or rarely both parents) aren't equipped to raise them very well. And not to turn this into a racial issue but somewhere around 23-25% of black kids only have one parent in the household versus close to 70% for white kids.
Lots of other issues come into play no doubt but having so many entitlement programs is not the answer. People need to learn that life isn't (or shouldn't be) a free ride where you struggle (but most everything you have is paid for by someone else).
