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It's probably solvable but do people want to solve it? The republicans are clearly against more welfare but also against almost any other policy that would reduce poverty. I'm sure there are also plenty of democrats that do some symbolic action to show their willingness to lessen poverty but never do anything with lasting impact.
Of course it is a policy choice. It is a policy choice by how benefits and costs are distributed (if you are poor you have to give away a bigger share of your money than if you are rich) and it is a policy choice how you deal with poverty once it is there (not housing homeless people, robbing them of fundamental rights, not shaping you society in a way that allows poor people to participate in meaningful ways).

This is all a choice. There are nation that are more social where the wealthy are more willing to help those who fell out of luck and getting poor there is harder and has less harsh consequences. There are nations that are more asocial (or even antisocial) and getting poor there might be a death sentence that only few can escape from. Usually their idea is that being poor needs to be harsh so people "don't get lazy" — a theory that needs a citation at least.