The U.S. COVID-19 relief strategy, in which generous stimulus payments worth billions of dollars were offered to more than 90 percent of Americans, along with benefits to the poor, at least in the short term, can hardly be dismissed. But the serious reality is that combating poverty is much more than just shoveling money into people's pockets, not only because it is financially unsustainable, but also because it does little to curb the two main causes of poverty, which are long-term unemployment and inflation.