Governmental poverty subsidies

According to a Washington Times article, total federal poverty subsidies are about 400 billion dollars annually. To put things into perspective, that's a subsidy of nearly $9000 for every man, woman, and child in poverty--assuming about 15% of the population is poor. If one divided this subsidy appropriately among the poor, there would be no one left with an income below the poverty threshold. This doesn't even count state and local subsidies.

Now granted, most of that money doesn't actually reach the poor. Most of it gets eaten up by bureaucracy long before it gets to recipients. However, we should never forget that when you subsidize something, you get more of it, and the behaviors that lead to poverty are no exception.

See FratersLibertas for some more interesting statistics on "anti"-poverty efforts.