The trouble is that the poverty rate, like the unemployment rate, can never actually fall to zero in a market economy. "Full employment" still results in an un

The trouble is that the poverty rate, like the unemployment rate, can never actually fall to zero in a market economy. "Full employment" still results in an unemployment rate of 2 - 6% (depending on how you're counting.) There are always going to be layoffs, family illnesses, fights with the boss, etc. that keep everyone from being employed all the time. In a healthy economy, though, those people are quickly cycling through unemployment and back into the workforce. In a similar way, something like a 10% poverty rate would probably qualify as "zero poverty." The goal, then, of anti-poverty initiatives should not be to eliminate poverty or to simply provide for the basic needs of the poor (1). The goal should be to ensure that each person below the poverty line is set up to rise up out of poverty as quickly as possible. The trouble is that the programs that help the poor the most (education, substance abuse treatment) are labor-intensive and expensive. (1) One possible exception - providing for the basic needs of children in poverty.