I think Ben Carson is absolutely right that poverty is a state of mind. That doesn't mean it's not real or important or it's easily fixed. But there's a difference between broke or struggling to support yourself and "poor". Poor implies a permanence. It implies you don't have the hope or ability to get see a way to prosper.

“I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind. You take somebody that has the right mind-set, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they’ll be right back up there.”

"You take somebody with the wrong mind-set, you can give them everything in the world — they’ll work their way right back down to the bottom."

"If everybody had a mother like mine, nobody would be in poverty."

It's unpopular but true. I do not agree with Carson on most things, and I do think gov't should help the poor, not as alms but for the same reason it should protect against pollution, crime, and invasion.

I'm posting this under "politics" because of the political backlash against a statement that I think is true. Admitting it and absorbing this statement, that poverty is a state of mind, would be a good thing for the world.