In poverty.....
This chaps my ass. I work in school districts where 75% of kids receive free lunch. The whole damn school is "in poverty". I always worry about the kids who really doesnt have enough to eat, or clothes to wear.
However, 95% of this "poverty" is self inflicted stupidity. The kid who doesnt have lunch? Funny thing.... He's got a cell phone two generations newer than mine. I drive a small motorcycle to school, even on cold mornings, freezing my ass off to save a few bucks on gas, and I bring my lunch from home (again, saving a buck). Junior, the impoverished kid, gets dropped off at school in mom's jacked up 4x4 or Suburban that gets 8 mpg, and they stopped at Stewarts on the way to school and bought two single cans of Monster at $1.99 a can.....
Every time I turn around, there is another benefit program for underprivileged kids. They get food stamps, TANF, welfare, heating assistance, rent assistance, clothing allowances, free breakfast and lunch and school, free after school snacks, and the schools now send home a back pack with food for the weekend. And you just need to watch the kids in the school cafeteria - 85% of what goes on their tray ends up in the trash (School lunch can be nasty, but a lot of this is packaged stuff. "I don't want an apple").
The Mrs. works in homes. Many are these 'underprivileged" homes. Our house if 58 degrees at night, and a high of 62 during the day. We are saving on heat. The ONLY homes that have the thermostat set at 80 so everyone can lounge around in shorts and tee shirts are welfare bum homes with heating assistance. She's been in some homes where the water hasn't run in three weeks (pump died). When the check came in, did Dad run out and buy a new pump? Nope. But he did spend $173 on two new commemorative John Deere collectors plates for the wall! And the water still isn't running, and you'll get the whole "woe is we, we is so poor" bullshit from these clowns.... They are NEVER out of beer, cigarettes or fireworks though. Kids aint fed but we got those three essentials all covered. Got four snowmobiles, but no food.
I wish there was a way to find the truly needy and serve those kids. However, all our attempts to help kids have only done one thing: They have successfully bred a dependent class that will NEVER have enough cash and resources to feed their kids, mostly because they are too stupid and self-centered to care enough about their kids to feed em!
95% of this poverty is self inflicted stupidity