From jobsanger:
Could the United States eliminate poverty within its borders? It’s an interesting question. Sadly, too many Americans don’t think we could. They will quote the saying that “the poor will always be with us”. They think it would take a prohibitive tax rate to eliminate poverty — a rate that the working and middle class could not afford to pay. They believe the best we could do is for the government to provide a subsistence level for the poor.
I believe they are wrong. The United States is the richest country on Earth, and the richest country that has ever existed in the world. We have the economic means to eliminate poverty, and we could do it without a lot of new government spending. All we need is the moral and political will to do so.
How could it be done?