Removing Obstacles To Overcoming Poverty

When it comes to fighting poverty, conservatives might be apathetic about the issue, while liberals endorse involuntarily giving one person's money to someone less fortunate.  Apathy only sustains the status quo, and forcibly redistributing wealth from those who have done nothing immoral in the process of gaining their wealth to those who have either less or no money is not a just (as far as the evidence suggests) way to rectify poverty.  However, there are ways to remove the obstacles to financial stability that would accomplish multiple things at once; it is just that almost no one suggests them.  One example has to do with hygiene.

Hygiene is something so basic that many people take it for granted, but it is widely considered especially important in particular situations like job interviews and other major career activities.  People without access to the resources needed to simply take showers, cut their hair, or brush their teeth are at a disadvantage given societal norms behind job interviews.  In fact, some people might be turned away on sight or quickly rejected once the interviewer sees or smells them.  While this might seem called for by some people, there are two reasons why turning someone away for these reasons by default is harmful and gratuitous at best.

If a homeless man or woman interviewed for a job which they are intellectually and/or experientially qualified for, whatever poor hygiene and "unprofessional" clothing they might have is of no relevance to their true merit as workers (at least for jobs which require little to no contact with the public).  They could always improve their hygiene and purchase more traditional workplace clothes if they had some measure of financial security with which to do so, but rejecting candidates solely based on a lack of needless "manners" or other such comparatively superficial characteristics both perpetuates poverty and focuses on issues that are both irrelevant to many jobs and fixable in the context of a stable job.

Abolishing unnecessary interview requirements such as the aforementioned example would help put qualified people trapped in poverty or even homelessness in a place from which they could start to consistently overcome their financial limitations--while also ensuring that it is more likely for interviewers to not dismiss candidates based on traits that are arbitrary or changeable.  Removing such obstacles to overcoming poverty harms no one, simplifies entry into a a career for those who have none, and pressures businesses to choose people solely based on merit in contexts where individual merit is all that matters.  It is a far more effective step to take towards eliminating poverty than those suggested by many people.