when my husband and I first started out we were poor(paycheck to paycheck) with absolutly no help from friends, family or government we slowly over a ten year span brought ourselves into middle class, with only our brains and hard physical labor.WHY??? because when you take away all the bling bling it boils down to one truth....so that we can take care of ourselves and our children in emergency situations..ie..we won't starve if the economy goes to shit etc... we know(without the government telling us) that if any worst case senerio came along, we would be responsible for our own well being and future. These poor in New Orleans allowed themselves to be in such a vulnerable position by not using their brains and not learning self sufficiency. There is no excuse for not having a better plan in place or a better levy. But the people and responsible for their own financial circumstances..not the president. This is true in every state in our country. If NO was full of poverty stricken, then that was the mayor and governors problem to fix, years ago!!
The mayor and the governor (and their predecessors, to be sure!) had precisely ZERO intention of getting any measureable number of people out of poverty, however defined. The political class in both large cities and poor states (NOLA is, of course, both) can only retain their power by creating and maintaining, and perpetuating if at all possible, a dependent class that will trade its votes for a handout cheque.