I was 17 and homeless prior to the job. I had to drop out of school for it. The only other option was living in a home for 16-17 year olds that had two cats (I

I was 17 and homeless prior to the job. I had to drop out of school for it. The only other option was living in a home for 16-17 year olds that had two cats (I have a 10/10 allergy to cats). I am also not trying to claim this is common or even not extremely uncommon. Rather, I am stating that being poor is expensive. I even gave you a specific example where it is true. Where having money would mean first and foremost that I would be in school instead of working to pay rent at 17. But that's not even where being poor started to cost me. It started to cost me when I missed meals as a kid. Is that also my fault? Not everyone can build a cushion. That's just the way it is. There are countless divergences from the "normal" that can wreak absolute havoc on a person's health and wealth. Nobody is choosing this life. I am no longer poor. I am a full 10 years behind my equally financially privileged brethren. I work harder, perform better, and have far superior outcomes than the people of my age who have come from a family who owned a home and could afford to send them to college while paying for housing. Lazy people are everywhere, it's scary, it's terrifying. If that behaviour is a benefit of wealth, and it is frankly, it is in itself evidence of the cost of being poor. I've also never asked for a hand-out. I work very hard to undo the cost of being poor. To say that it wasn't a massive disadvantage with an equivalent cost is to lie.