<rant>

This article irritates the living hell out of me. I was extremely poor as a child, yet there are sensible ways people act who are in poverty and ways in which poor people act that causes poverty.

> Because personal responsibility should not be the sole purview of single minority mothers.

The popular idea (in the USA at least) is that once a person is a “single mother” they are somehow special and everyone has to pay their way. Popular politicians (Hillary Clinton) say things like “it takes the village to raise a child”. This is against the normal notion of the father and mother paying for the child and raising the child. Most single mothers probably do not know the father of their children.

This is utter bullshit - a poor (and rich girl) is not supposed to get pregnant out of wedlock – that is insane stupidity. This has nothing to do with poverty. Getting pregnant does not entitle you to a big chunk of another’s money.

> Being poor is going to the restroom before you get in the school lunch line so your friends will be ahead of you and won't hear you say "I get free lunch" when you get to the cashier....

Nice. I didn’t get lunch at school.

> Being poor is feeling the glued soles tear off your supermarket shoes when you run around the playground.

Hmm… fair enough. I only wore shoes since 8th grade (because it was mandatory). In any case, running around barefoot makes you faster (almost everyone did that). Gluing is a bad way to fix shoes – the better way is with a thick type of needle and twine (don’t exactly know what this is in English).

> Being poor is relying on people who don't give a damn about you.

I never had a problem with people not caring about me. Of course you will not be the most popular guy with the girls or have fancy clothes (you know that group). But that doesn’t mean that people do not care about you.

> Being poor is not talking to that girl because she'll probably just laugh at your clothes.

Or having extremely bad acne+teeth but no money for medicine? Been there. Still doesn’t entitle you to someone else’s money.

> Being poor is your kid's teacher assuming you don't have any books in your home.

You know what many teachers like? People who do well and work hard. All the money of rich kids cannot (usually) buy them good test scores. Fair enough, they have fancy scientific calculators and computers while you must do with a hand-hand-hand me down. But that doesn’t help them that much. More often the privilege that rich kids experience set them up for failure later in life.

Here is what I have found with parents that are different:
1.	Became super conservative – everything is saved, nothing is wasted. Even now, when my parents are doing well, my father still can’t throw away glass bottles.
2.	Obsession with cleanliness (my mother used to say: “We may be poor, but we are not dirty”).
3.	Obsession with education and forcing children to work extremely hard.
4.	Extremely socially conservative. My father forbade dancing, alcohol. Even forbade my sister from watching television soaps, etc…
5.	Extremely strict.
6.	Obsessed with being successful. My father has a successful business now, but still work 15 hours a day.

<\rant>