half of america lives officially at poverty-level

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I now feel xtra guilty,my family has given me lots of nice things that other low income people don't have.I do drive an old 86 Pontiac 6000ste.They helped me buy it.The tablet I'm using right now is a gift,I guess I did hit the jackpot with my family.I wish everyone could have these things.I did buy my own tv,but I used my credit card.And I have a really good garden spot and I know how to forage in the woods.But sometimes beans and cornbread get kind of old.But I am thankful I have something to eat.Around here there is a term called "land poor",you've got acreage but no money.And I'll eat dirt before I cut my timber.

Having something that another person does not have, does NOT mean you acquired it wrongfully.

ruveyn

The gambler ethic has replaced the work ethic. Those that create value, either manually or intellectually keep recieving less and less while those that produce nothing (Wall Street etc that created the current mess) get wealthier by betting on the productivity of others. That is why Wall Street is doing fantastic and the middle class is evaporating.
Actually,. Wall Street recieves its money thru embezzlement. Our money has been stolen thru corrupt politicians. To call them gamblers is actually too flattering.

the gilded age reincarnated.

at least the communications infrastructure is far more facile than it was back in the day. flash mobs could not have [as readily] existed back then.

why has it not happened more often?

I think it's absolutely hilarious, in a very dark way, how deluded some people are about this.

For the guy who talked about poor people smoking... People get addicted to thing. Poor people get addicted more. Nicotine is an anti-depressant, and I seriously doubt that someone working at McDonalds can support a Prozac subscription. It works, and up until recently, it was cheap. Yes, it's much more expensive now. Who's driving that? The upper-middle class and the rich. I have never met a poor person, even a non-smoking poor person, who really cared if someone lit up ten feet away. I've had rich people walk fifty to tell me that my second hand smoke is killing them. The wealthy vote to raise the cigarette tax, the poor, who are still addicts, end up paying.

As far as eating at McDonalds every day... the Dollar Menu is a lifeline to the poor. The food may be crap, but a dollar's a dollar. McDonalds is the cheapest place you can go. And there's those of us who can barely afford that.

I remember when I moved out on my own. There was three of us, one worked at a restaurant, me and the other worked at Walmart. It was a %$$&ty apartment in a %$&*ty part of a %$^&ty town (Our complex got raided almost weekly), but we could afford it, barely. $1200 a month. Many's the night we sat in the dark (Computers, TV, and Electricity bills are evil) passing around a single god%$&* cigarette because that was all we could afford to do. We ate ramen, $0.59 a cup at Big Lots, and whatever the one could swipe from his restaurant. We saved our money. If we had a good month, we would go to Pizza Hut, about the classiest place in town. Sure, not great, but again, we could afford it. Until the end of the year, when the rent went up.

That's how a poor person in America lives, my friend.