Our country is witnessing an economic resurgence after the passage of tax reform last year. For the first time in recorded history, the number of jobs open is larger than the number of unemployed people. This is good for everyone, regardless of their position in life. For those who are unemployed, they will be able to find an employer with an available job. For those who are already employed, they will start seeing their wages rise as businesses compete for employees.

Yet despite these record numbers, the most vulnerable among us are still down on their luck. After spending more than $20 trillion in the War on Poverty, America has yet to conquer this adversary. Maybe that’s because the solution is not to simply throw money at the symptoms of poverty without addressing the root causes of the problem. As Arthur Brooks at the American Enterprise Institute writes, the War on Poverty “got the U.S. government into the business of treating people left behind by economic change as liabilities to manage rather than as human assets to develop.” The longer we refuse to recognize that these are men, women, parents, sons, and daughters with dreams and ambitions, we are destined to fail and keep millions of Americans in the cycle of poverty.