I understand poverty on a personal level. I grew up poor, so poor I didn't have a tv in my home until I was ten, around the same time our family owned our first used washing machine. I've lived on my own since I was sixteen. I worked a part time job while also finishing high school. I shared an apartment with other people to bring costs down and I survived.
It has as everything to do with lifestyle. It's simple math, the less expenditures you have, the more money you keep. If you're a single person who makes minimum wage your going to have to make certain lifestyle concessions. You're not going to be able to live alone or make unnecessary purchases, have a new car or the latest fashions. You won't be able to buy a house or raise a family.
I've gone over the poor owning luxuries a million times. I've posted the census data countless times. A large percentage of people who are at poverty level own many different luxury items.
While I don't have as much experience with being poor as you do, I did have a year of poverty when I was 18 years old. It was kind of fun sometimes because my friends and roommate were just as poor as I was. We could go out for an evening of drinking at the bars on .25, the cost of one draft beer (and yes I got served underage). I have also a fair amount of experience with living beyond one's means.
My parents were accomplished at doing this. The lived big and with enormous debt which resulted is at least two bankruptcies that I know of. When my stepdad had a heart attack and couldn't work for awhile, my mom applied for and got food stamps. She drove a two year old Lincoln Continental and they lived in a big house with a pool in an expensive neighborhood in Southern California all while have nothing in the bank....no savings. Fortunately, I no longer lived at home when this happened.
I am pretty sure my parents weren't the norm and to be honest, their situation (at least my dad not being able to work) was temporary. But they were chronically in debt and no one but their creditors were the wiser because from all outward appearances they were well off.
I chose to be conservative with my money, even when my income wasn't great. In the long run, it has paid off. Not everyone learns these little life lessons. My wife and I had a small B&W television until about 1975 or so because that was all we could afford. Our first color television magically appeared in the shed behind our house. It brand new and probably stolen and dumped there. A fiend of mine who was a Portland Policeman advised that since there was no identifying info to determine where I might have been stolen from we should keep it. When I brought it into the house and plugged it in it snapped and crackled because of the moisture inside. Amazingly it worked. We kept it until it finally broke down many years later.
I'd be interested to see the resources you say you posted regarding the percentages of poor people living the life of Riley. This seems very curious to me.
