1) It doesn't have to be completely flat, just fairly close to it. A "bee sting" is perhaps too mild a way of describing the problems of a poor person. Is it ea

1) It doesn't have to be completely flat, just fairly close to it. A "bee sting" is perhaps too mild a way of describing the problems of a poor person. Is it easier to understand what Karelis is talking about if you imagine a poor person who, instead of four bee stings, has three out-of-wedlock children, ignorance of contraception, a third-grade education, and a drug habit? Solving any one, or any two, or three, of these problems, still wouldn't be enough to lift them out of poverty, which seems like a pretty obvious point. 2) I suppose this might be seen as biting the bullet and admitting to an indefensible point, but I do not find it hard to imagine that if I were poor and desperate, and some asshole came and took my last $50, and I had absolutely nothing, nothing else with no hope of being able to improve things, I wouldn't care. I was already fucked anyway.