> So Japanese people are doing everything right -- eschewing violence, avoiding drugs, working hard and not having kids out of wedlock. They are following the conservative prescription, as well as or better than any other developed country in the world. And yet still, many of them are poor. This suggests that there is something very wrong with the conservative theory of poverty.

No, the author is confused. There is a big difference between -

- you cannot be poor if you make good choices, and

- you can get out of povery by making good choices

The conservative position is the later. There will be cases where it doesn't work, but it is a sound recommendation in general.

Now, poverty does make it harder to make good choices. So welfare $s should be spent to make that easier, e.g. free food at school helps kids do better at school.