You missed one thing about the poor: they are useful as slaves--which is still legal in America. So America spends billions, maybe trillions over the last four to five decades to incarcerate people for anything, especially normal everyday human endeavors so they can be enslaved, provide free labor, and provide a base for others to profit off their pain. Most of these people are, of course, people of color, whom America has enslaved since before it even existed as America, so there is an additional benefit of removing them off the white-controlled streets. No analysis of American poverty is complete without acknowledging this fundamental factor: race and slavery.