A Profile of the Working Poor (http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswp2010.pdf)
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, March 2013
23% of the the poor, or 10.5 million people, are "working poor," i.e. people who are poor despite working, rather than because they're too lazy to work.
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Poverty in the United Stated: Frequently Asked Questions (http://www.npc.umich.edu/poverty/)
National Poverty Center
Also, over a third of the poor are children, so you can't exactly hold that against them.
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Contrary to "Entitlement Society" Rhetoric, Over Nine Tenths of Entitlement Benefits Go to Elderly, Disabled, and Working Housholds (http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3677)
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
A new CBPP analysis of budget and Census data, however, shows that more than 90 percent of the benefit dollars that entitlement and other mandatory programs[1] spend go to assist people who are elderly, seriously disabled, or members of working households — not to able-bodied, working-age Americans who choose not to work. (See Figure 1.) This figure has changed little in the past few years.
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Many Young Adults in Poverty Have a College Degree, Report Says (http://chronicle.com/article/Many-Young-Adults-in-Poverty/65826/)
The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 15, 2013
Among Americans age 18 to 26 living in poverty, almost half (42-47% depending on the year), were enrolled in college or had been at some point. Only 11% of them had graduated, but that's probably because most of them were still enrolled and working towards it.
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NIAAA Researchers Estimate Alcohol and Drug Use, Abuse, and Dependence Among Welfare Recipients (http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/oct96/niaaa-23.htm)
National Institute of Health
Drug and alcohol use among welfare recipients is pretty much exactly the same as in the general population.
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Editorial: Drug testing welfare recipients nets little (http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/story/2012-03-18/drug-testing-welfare-applicants/53620604/1)
USA Today
Arizona drug-tests 87,000 welfare recipients. One tests positive.
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The 4 Types of People on Welfare Nobody Talks About (http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-4-types-people-welfare-nobody-talks-about/)
Cracked
Yes, it's a Cracked article, but read #3. It does a good job of describing some of the things that make it near impossible to climb out of poverty.