What Should Society Do About the Poor?

If you ask most people what society should do about the poor, the answer is fairly obvious, at least that something must be done. “Surely a society has a moral obligation toward its poor and its needy”, so it's thought.

Is this the right way to think about the poor and society? Are these issues for the whole of society to decide? Are they political problems that need to have imposed political solutions? How would one think about issues surrounding the poor, handicapped or needy from a more individualist perspective rather than a collectivist one?

Join Aaron Smith in examining the question: What should society do about the poor?