There are remarkable differences among the people we label as 'poor'. The poverty population includes the elderly poor as well as unwed teenage mothers. It includes people with university degrees as well as people who are functionally illiterate. It includes the healthy as well as the sick. It includes people who are able to support themselves through productive work as well as people who are mentally impaired. It includes people who use the welfare system only for temporary relief as well as people who become perpetual wards of the state.