Bullshit. Are the only person on earth who's not read this yet?
Why poor peoples bad decisions make perfect sense
There are (many) people out there who have no fallback, no slack, constantly skating the line between soul-crushing poverty and homelessness. As the article puts it - sure, you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps. If you can afford bootstraps. It's easy to condemn these people for vices like smoking or drinking but really, would you be without your little vices? And would you retain your sanity for long without them?
You're a low-ID slashdotter. It's overwhelmingly likely that you are a middle aged white guy who's worked in tech most of his life. You had the luxury of a youth where you were not struggling to find enough food to eat and had the time to noodle around with computers or whatever you probably make your living at now.
I'm certainly in the same boat - I too have no real conception of what poverty is like. I remember my parents being cautious with money, and my grandfather helping out to buy my first computer, but I've only seen the shadows on the wall cast by this kind of life when dealing with patients in various clinics and hospital wards. I have some inkling of how tired they must feel, having worked 80-hour weeks as a junior doctor, but that was at a time when I was earning a solid wage and living in a rent-free apartment provided by my employer. I have some inkling of how money being tight feels, having lived through a period when I could quadruple my disposable income and afford an extra beer a week by spending £0.50 less per day on lunch, but I was still eating well and sleeping under my own roof.
Even now I know that if my cushy government job is scrapped and I'm out of work, I have enough skills and contacts and smarts to be earning a comfortable living again within a month or two, and enough savings to last until I am. I have a vast amount of "capital" built up in terms of experience and training and knowledge, and robust health nurtured by a lifetime of being able to afford to eat reasonably healthily. And if the worst comes to the worst, I have parents who own their own house and would be happy to put me up, an ex-wife who earns more than me and would probably support me (we don't get on as spouses any more, but the woman is a compassionate saint), etc, etc, etc.
If I believed in God, I'd have someone to thank every day for the vast privilege of being me.
Ranting like this at you is exactly what I needed, by the way. I've been feeling rather down and lonely since my marriage broke up, but this adds a most welcome measure of perspective. So thank you for the stimulus.