The US is the only country in the world where the poor people are obese.

This s hows that contrary to what liberals say, the majority of our poor people have th eir basic needs met. In fact we have too many people dependent on gov't program s and entitlements and they're being supported by the middle and upper classes. These are the people who pay the majority of the taxes in this country, and bec ause of our out of control entitlement programs, they then have less money to pu t back into the economy and less money to create jobs for those very same poor p eople. The problem of poverty in America isn't one of economics primarily, it's a moral problem. There are more divorces and single parents now than ever before, and what is the result of this? More people who have to struggle to survive and who then qualify for government assistance, creating an entire generation of people who depend on the government to survive rather than a family and their communit y. Instead of a man and woman getting married and making it on their own, they stay separate after the father usually leaves, making both of them eligible for gov't assistance that they wouldn't be eligible for if they were together, and t hey wouldn't need it because they would share their finances and support each ot her. The statistics back up these ideas, since couples who are educated and married a re very rarely in poverty compared to the huge numbers of people who are neither of those things and are in poverty. What has made this problem, which is a cultural one, worse however has been the liberal big gov't programs that actually encourage people to be dependent on the gov't rather than encourage communities and organizations to help out those les s fortunate, which is what the tradition has always been in America until recent times. My generation especially has been taught to live for themselves and not for othe rs, but this way of life started in the previous generation during the cultural/ sexual revolution of the 70s. With so many people living for themselves, we ove rlook the needs of those we are poorer than us, and especially under the Obama a dmin., we just assume that the gov't will be there to give them free stuff so th ere's no need to help them anyway. The main reason America became the most successful and prosperous nation on Eart h wasn't because of our individual freedom, although that made us stand apart as well. It was what we did with that freedom, which was form strong families and strong communities that lasted. We used to help each other out and not depend on the gov't to do things for us. Imagine if the first settlers said, "ok there 's all this unsettled land that needs to be developed but we'll wait for the gov 't to do it for us." They did it themselves, and the founders created a system of checks and balances and LIMITED GOV'T because they knew that there were bound to be future leaders who would have a different vision for this country (like O bama) and would try to turn it into the European-style socialist system that we came here to escape from in the first place. The rise of crowded cities and then technological devices like the tv and phone certainly made the bonds between people weaker, but they were just symptoms that reflected the underlying problem, which was the decaying of the moral fabric of this country. There has been a direct correlation between us losing faith in God and religion collectively and having more gov't programs to replace God with. We need to keep the technological advances of modern society but return to the s tronger moral compass and sacrificing spirit of previous generations like the gr eatest generation. If we do that, we can solve both our social and economic pro blems simultaneously.