"Undeserved" vs. "Underserved"

       In a business page column of the L.A. Times of September 1, 2011, Michael Hiltzik writes of the "undeserving poor," so-called by some.  The column debunks the term, and it made me think of the easy mixup between the words "undeserved" and "underserved."
     
      The poor are often “underserved,” get a smaller piece of the pie the federal government serves up to its citizens.  Hiltzik’s column clearly demonstrates that that is the case.

      The other term, “undeserving poor,” takes a totally opposite stance.  And Hiltzik quotes A. J. Liebling  as having identified what this term is really saying: “that the poor are poor because of their sins and whatever they get is too good for them.”  It is a term that deserves debunking.