How universal is this argument; giving money to politically powerless groups (19th century Irish, homeless people, jobless people during the depression) somehow makes them poorer, seemingly this argument never applies to the already powerful or wealthy.

"Too much money and you lose your initiative, thereby making you poorer in the long run." Said nobody, ever.

We should be developing land, creating jobs, irrigating water sources, installing solar energy panels, and windmills. That is just to start. You can't just throw money at a problem and hope it goes away; you don't feed them fish, you teach them how to fish so they have a job and can support themselves.