The claim that the article is trying to make is that as a society we are not interested in helping our fellow man that is less fortunate than us but there just so happens to be ample evidence to the contrary. In the opening to the article poverty soon forgotten Keyssar describes the scenes from post hurricane Katrina of people walking down flooded streets carrying garbage bags with very few possessions he proceeds to outline the lack of response in helping the under privileged get out of the city. The question stands though does government mismanagement of a particular situation prove a societal disinterest in helping our fellow man. Since the mid 1960’s America has spent more than 22 trillion dollars on the issue of poverty in America if the money had not been spent on the programs to deal with poverty the country may not have the 17 trillion dollar debt that we now enjoy. Keyssar argues that in the aftermath of major events that American journalist were quick to outline the plight of the American under privileged stuck in the superdome in New Orleans but they were just as quick to move on to other things that happened just after such as the gulf oil spill and hurricane Rita. Although, “monetary donations were way below the records set by the tsunami and 9/11 relief efforts in the U.S., The U.S. did receive international assistance from numerous countries. The National Disaster Medical System had activated essentially all team in the country, and pre-staged multiple Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs, Disaster Mortuary Assistance Teams (DMORTs) and Veterinary Medicine Response Teams (VMATs) in Houston and Atlanta the day prior to, and the day of landfall. The federal government measures poverty not in the quality of life that a person has but their income as measured against the price of food adjusted for inflation every time a census is done. Since the Great Depression, the U.S. has developed programs to help aid low-income families, senior citizens, and people with disabilities help make ends meet and obtain health care”. Since President Lyndon B Johnson launched the War on Poverty back in January of 1964 taxpayers have spent more than $22 trillion on the poverty war. Last year alone $943 billion were used to provide cash, food, housing, and medical attention to low-income Americans. Doing the math, if this was all converted to cash then America spent five times more than what was needed to eliminate poverty in the U.S.. According to the annual U.S. Census Bureau, in 2013 14.5 percent of Americans were poor which ironically is almost the same number of the poverty rate back in 1967. When most people think of the poor they think of malnourished homeless people but shockingly 80 percent of poor households have air conditioning, two-thirds have cable and satellite t.v., half have personal computers, 40 percent have a wide screen t.v., three-quarters own a car or truck, and nearly a third has two or more vehicles. Ninety-six percent of poor parents state that their children were never hungry at any time during the year because they could not afford food. Some 82 percent of poor adults reported that they were never hungry at any time in the prior year. As a group, poor children are far from being chronically undernourished. The average consumption of protein, vitamins, and minerals is virtually the same for poor and middle-class children, and in most cases is well above recommended norms. So poverty isn't necessarily about being hungry or homeless. It’s also about the underprivileged people that are 1 or 2 paychecks from being homeless paying taxes like everyone else. I raise the question to the reader how responsible are we for the choices that we make with the aid offered by both state and federal aid programs the question arises as to whether the problem is not with the monetary amount of support but the people that arbitrate it or the people that use the programs.