It is 100% true that planned economies are unworkable. It is also true that there is a deep running issue with free market capitalism. If you honestly believe that most or all poverty in the US can be root caused to lack of effort or capability on the behalf to the afflicted then stop reading this comment now. You are yourself burdened with a very difficult to cure affliction and there is little to no point in engaging in conversation with you.
If you have been around for a while and you have been paying attention you might be starting to wonder if there is something more deeply wrong. There is. It was root caused along with a likely very good solution over 100 years ago.
Free market economies in conjunction with democracy still have great potential as a cornerstone to a free and great world. However with private control of natural resources (land, oil, water etc.) the system will always devolve to, well, what we have now. Economic crap.
By the way, some folks may have riled at the natural resources sentence above, possibly imagining that it implied government control or ownership of those resources. Nothing could be further from the truth. Government control and ownership is *not* needed and is not necessary to solve this problem. The rest I leave as an exercise for anyone interested.