The 5 Stupidest Habits You Develop Growing Up Poor

[raging moderate]

133. Well said.

I could detail how the experience was different before computers and food stamps and earned income credits, but why depress us all even more? Basically, poor people want to participate in society as much as anybody else, and failure to do so makes others think you are crazy or stupid. When we didn't have a working TV, people didn't say, "Oh, how discrete and judicious those poor people are." No, they said, "She is the dumbest girl around. She never knows what to say in a conversation, she wears her skirts too long and doesn't know the latest dances." etc. Yes, my family mostly did it the way all these poor-people bashers say you should, except that we did spend windfalls on "luxuries" like beds for everybody to sleep in and a couch for everybody to sit on. Good grief! it was a bitter experience, and I do not blame those who just can't stand it and go out and get that new TV or computer that might actually (gasp!) work well enough to let you concentrate on the information content and social conditioning that will make you look normal to those around you.