In an article by David Brooks in the New York Times he addresses reasons for the success or failure of programs designed to solve the poverty problem. He characterizes Democratic programs as transferring money through the provision of more jobs or through other means that address the “material deprivation of the poor.” Republicans address “economic incentives” or “regulatory barriers”  that affect our poor.

But, Brooks suggests that the problem here may be found in how we view the poor. When poor people are merely conceived as an abstraction, to be improved through economic structures, we miss seeing who these poor individuals truly are. We miss seeing people’s character and behavior, factors that strongly affect roles in our culture.