Well, let's start with the important stuff, establishing my standpoint-theoretical credentials. I grew up in Russia during its economic collapse, in a "lower-mi

Well, let's start with the important stuff, establishing my standpoint-theoretical credentials. I grew up in Russia during its economic collapse, in a "lower-middle-class" family. Food stamps were not a thing, but my mom definitely spent a lot of time e.g. taking transit to some far-away store to buy chicken cheaper... and when my grandma would visit she would report smth like "tomatoes and potatoes were cheaper on Kievsky market today, and oranges were cheaper on Izmaylovsky market, I can buy you some so you don't have to go all the way there". We couldn't afford even to replace a TV, forget e.g. a car. The first cellphone I ever had was purchased from my first full-time paycheck. Still, the other guy is absolutely right. The penny-pinching food we ate was luxurious compared to the vast majority of people throughout most of history. Moreover, most American poor live the life of royalty. The only unique real problem (a subset of) the American poor has is housing insecurity; if you don't have that (or frankly if you have that in an expensive city and don't move out), the rest of the complaints I hear are, from my "lived experience", a joke.