Why is there this assumption that "the poor" are virtuous because they're poor? That BS. I have a sister who's "poor" because, at 55 she's never held down a steady job. Is she "virtuous?" Hell no, she cheats and steals her way through life, and has taken so much from my elderly parents they are now poor, too.
There is no correlation between virtue and poverty, it's just a tool to demagogue people trying to hold their own, and it's disgraceful.