Is poverty and individual or structural phenomenon? Pertaining to the United States.

Relative poverty is individual, general poverty is structural.

Relative poverty is what you see given as examples of poverty in the US. MOST (not all) of the poor in the US are wealthier than the majority of human beings to ever exist but relative to the rest of US society they are poor. That, in my opinion is individual.

General poverty, as seen in the third world or what is happening in Venezuela is structural.

Going off what you have said, wealth is relative. The fact that people in the US who are considered to be impoverished, yet wealthier than most, does not really matter.

Desired how?

So are food stamps a way over keeping an underclass

Nah, they aren't equivalent

Por que no los dos?

I do quarrel with your use of the term "structural".

Are you suggesting that society keeps people poor?

Or are you referring to cultural structure?

ETA: OP edited the question so I have no idea what I'm doing right now.

It is individual. There is no one being kept from studying & working hard to achieve middle class prosperity. Of the two wealthiest people I know, one grew up rather poor & barely graduated high school and the other only has a 2-year degree from a votech school. They both managed to build a net worth over $1 million.

A lot of people have a higher hill to climb to get out of poverty, but there is nothing stopping these people from accomplishing it.

Popular culture disparages physical labor, encourages making money via criminality, encourages fraud, gives no stigma towards using public assistance as much as possible, etc. many places have stripped all work requirements from various entitlement programs, and saving money and/or working can often cause one to lose their benefits AND be forced to pay all of that money back, putting them even worse off than if they'd never worked at all. It incentivizes not getting married and having children out of wedlock by paying them more that way. Our entitlement system incentivizes all of the decisions that are more likely to keep people in poverty while punishing the activities that can get one out of poverty. The choice is still up to them, though.

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Desired how?

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You don't have to get up to go to work..you don't have to answer to anyone and your basic life expenses are covered. It's like being a teenager again.

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It's nothing like being a teenager.

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You're right. You don't have to answer to your parents..or anyone else.