There are many reasons why government should care about poverty and uneven income distribution:

1) to avoid criminal behavior, which often is caused by poverty

2) to protect human dignity

3) to protect children

4) several principles and concepts of fairness (e.g. ability to pay, utilitarianism) propose income redistribution

As a result, public spending on social protection represents the largest part of government expenditures in most countries (see Figure 1 on one of the previous pages).