The only "remedies" for poverty offered by government in his time were punitive. He suffered personally in his childhood as a result of those remedies, intended only to protect the people with property.

If government only protects those with property, then those with property will be the only ones who care about the law. We've seen this before. If we don't learn from this lesson of history, then where will we be?

I suggest you read Dickens again, and not just his reinvention of Christmas. And Hugo.

The main point here is that we actually don't have three spirits to hound people into supporting those who, through no fault of their own, need it. You say people would step up if government stepped back. I say that government has stepped up because private citizens have not in sufficient numbers. Do remember the urchins under the robes of the Ghost of Christmas Present, Ignorance and Want. In the words of the venerable Ghost, "This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased."