Part of me thinks that the "mindset of poor" isn't just in the minds of some poor people. It is in the minds of the wealthier people. I know this sounds strange

Part of me thinks that the "mindset of poor" isn't just in the minds of some poor people. It is in the minds of the wealthier people. I know this sounds strange, but I go back to the block party thought. My neighbors know we have chickens and they've been coming over a lot lately to "borrow" an egg. I'm fine with that. Occasionally I go over and borrow a wrench or something. Neither considers the other poor. Together, we don't lack for much. Some will call my thinking Polyannish, but it really helps to think this way. My neighbor needs a car for 30 minutes and I don't need to use mine at the moment. Here's the keys. Maybe they kick me $5 for gas and $10 for insurance and $2 for wear and tear. Or maybe they just let me borrow their lawn mower a few times. Or maybe they teach my kid how to play guitar. Maybe we don't keep score. We just know that together we got through the last flood. If we start getting jealous of each other because she's got a bigger house or I stacked fewer sandbags, we become weaker as a whole. Of course I can't sit around and just mouch. And she can't either. And I'm not trying to justify the rich who exploit the poor. But we can do a lot at the neighbor to neighbor human level that makes life better for us all without government intervention. When it happens in poor neighborhoods we can call it poverty prevention; when it happens in rich neighborhoods we can call it an affluence subsidy. I wish we could just do it a lot more between and across all neighborhoods and call it normal.