First, there are only 3 countries in the world where the poor are better off than America, but secondly, and more importantly, the poor don't stay poor in America. Here are some of the amazing stats about poverty transition in America:

The research of social scientists Thomas Hirschl (Cornell) and Mark Rank (Washington University) showing that as a result of dynamic income mobility nearly 70% of Americans will be in the top income quintile for at least one year while almost one-third will be in the top quintile for ten years or more. That is INCREDIBLE!

More relevant to the poor, as Thomas Sowell pointed out in his syndicated column in March 2013 titled “Economic Mobility”: Most working Americans who were initially in the bottom 20% of income-earners, rise out of that bottom 20%. More of them end up in the top 20% than remain in the bottom 20%. People who were initially in the bottom 20% in income have had the highest rate of increase in their incomes, while those who were initially in the top 20% have had the lowest. This is the direct opposite of the pattern found when following income brackets over time, rather than following individual people.