There's a lot more to poverty than just "not having money." If my bank account suddenly dropped to zero, I lost all my material possessions, and I didn't have a

There's a lot more to poverty than just "not having money." If my bank account suddenly dropped to zero, I lost all my material possessions, and I didn't have a job, I'm pretty confident that, within a few years, I could build things back up again and have a comfortable lifestyle (albeit, one with a very sad retirement account). This isn't the case for most people in poverty [edit: in poverty in the US Obviously, very different depending where they live] So if you're saying: "You were raised without any sort of education, never had a bank account, are trapped in a cycle of high-interest loans, have never had a good-paying job and don't have the skills to get one, and this is all you've ever seen and all your children have ever seen around them... but it's a really poor excuse for not buying a computer!" then fine. You can certainly have an opinion! Just keep in mind that it may not be wise to compare those in poverty to a smart, well-educated academic who sees an "obvious" value in computers for his children.