Not long ago, I travelled abroad, Australia. There I could see that the principle of a nation that doesnt only care about the upper crust, some things show that they are possible. A govt can easily reach out to the needy without spoiling economic growth, and education and heath are the basic basic things that a country must maintain, and USA fails drasticly in both. 300 mil people might be much, but the annual tax income is huge enaugh, and if people would have to pay more in taxes and less in HMO and collage and University, they would save themselves a lot of money that today goes to those company as profit, something that shouldn't be there in something so basic as health and education. I do not belive in communism, but knockle head capitalism, paranoid about anything remotely socialist, is just about the same.
As for food and shelter, that is more relative, but it is not imposible to prevent the lack of these two to city population. Many countries take care of these quite well.