Final answer:
Samuel Smiles believed in self-improvement and individual effort for the poor, while Herbert Spencer supported laissez-faire capitalism and opposed financial assistance.
Step-by-step explanation:
Samuel Smiles and Herbert Spencer held different ideas regarding the poor.
Samuel Smiles believed that the poor could help themselves through self-improvement and adopting more disciplined habits. He emphasized the importance of individual effort, hard work, and self-reliance. Smiles argued that if individuals took responsibility for their own actions and strived for self-improvement, they could rise out of poverty.
Herbert Spencer, on the other hand, advocated for laissez-faire capitalism and opposed offering financial assistance to the poor. He believed in Social Darwinism, which proposed that some people were better equipped for survival than others. Spencer argued that it was not useful to help the poor because they were destined to die out, as they lacked the traits necessary to succeed.