"The Poor will always be with us"

The quote above sticks in my mind even though I'll not try to discover its author.

But is it a description or the author's prescient thoughts about today's world. Is it to be so forever? What means do we have to end poverty? Should we do all that we can to lift everyone out of poverty acknowledging that poverty, the grinding, soul-breaking kind, is not a choice made by those within its grasp?

Or are we simply to stand by and bow to the phrase that "poverty is simply the cost of living in a capitalist society?" This phrase is not mine but it has a resonance with the views of so many these days.