Individual poor families might have the possibility of 'pulling themselves up by the bootstraps', on an ad hoc basis. But that'll never work as a general policy to deal with the problem. Even if you could get them all to try, the existing opportunities which make it possible for individuals to climb up, would immediately be swamped. We can't all work three fulltime jobs to save up enough money to buy a food stand, or whatever.
I think you're wrong about that - or if it were the case, how would our modern world even be possible? Only a few of us can do big things and change our lives? Clearly there are enough examples of people who did not have the universe on their side making big changes regardless, to negate this perspective - I know far more people who started with nothing and built their prosperous lives through hard work than those who just inherited it by luck or fortune.
Its therefore important to point out that there is a further responsibility in the equation, beyond just 'blame the poor', and that is 'make the rich more responsible for the poor', too. Its not a single equation, but rather a set of them .. linked together in order to function. And when these links are made and functional, we have a healthy society which boosts the standards of living for all of its citizens. There are enough examples of this to warrant optimism that in fact we can improve our own lives by improving the lives of others, and to ignore the desire to just be defeated by entropy, which is the natural state of the universe.
