It's simplistic to think that "it's your own fault if you're poor" which is what tjic is implying. I was irritated by the above post because I don't think the

It's simplistic to think that "it's your own fault if you're poor" which is what tjic is implying. I was irritated by the above post because I don't think the above poster has really been poor before. When you're 13 years old, with no home, no parents, perhaps in 70s Taiwan where government services were at a minimum, living off a bowl of white rice every day, trying to study and get into the best college because that's your only ticket out for 4 or 5 years, I don't think there is much you can do at all. To say that you can fix your situation in any state is insulting. My father did get out. But he suffered for four years, which seemed like eternity. One bowl of rice, passing out because he didn't get enough nutrition. What would you have him do? Go work and forfeit a college education? He didn't need anything, by the way. But to imply that there was more he could do about his situation is INSULTING.