I dont think poverty can be entirely eliminated in a
meritocracy-based society... It can be minimized, but not
eliminated.
I believe everything is a matter of degree... Bad things are of
course, bad. But too much of a good thing can also be bad! Equality
of opportunities is what I believe in to inspire individual effort
and contribution. This contrasted markedly with the centrally
planned economic model a.la. Communist systems, where there is
equality of outcomes.
However, there must be something in the former system that inspires
people to work hard... and that poverty unfortunately, is one of
that "something" .... In other words, there must be 'losers' for
there to be 'winners', and it is this that inspires people to
strive. However, if we carry this attitude too far, elitism will
result (reminded me of the most recent incident where a young lady
of exalted background and education made an extremely arrogant and
elitist post in her personal blog). Conversely, if we have too much
"handouts" to totally remove poverty, individual contribution and
effort will be stifled.
The key in my opinion, is to strike a balance between these 2
extremes, to find the "sweet spot" as they say.
This situation is of course, still unsatisfactory, as alluding to
the First Noble Truth. So all the more we should heed Buddha's
teaching to end this vicious cycle of unsatisfactory state of
existence.
