This'n'That; December Sixteenth #2; The 'Poor?!?'

Can I Be Poor.... P-L-E-A-S-E?!?
    I grew up in the 1950s and early '60s.  We lived 2.5 miles out'ta town; we had a house with the proverbial "outhouse out-back!!"  My parents each had full time jobs.... we only had one 'full time' vehicle.  My Mom walked two-miles down to the corner (where our dirt road met the state highway) to catch her ride to work-four miles away.  We had several radios, but never got a TV until I was seventeen, in 1963.
    I've been on someone's payroll since I was 13 (so I lied!).  There were times when the income didn't quite keep up with the outgo; so much so, that at one time, I 'lived under a bridge' in the Kansas City, Mo., area.  Never once--I take that back; ONCE--did I consider "going on the county."  That once was a (just one) monthly allowance of $122 in foodstamps (in the early 1980s when they actually were coupons!).  When I tried to pay the county back some several months later, I found there was no mechanism to receive repayments; they wouldn't--COULDN'T--take my money!!  I donated the funds to the Salvation Army!
Can I be poor, P-L-E-A-S-E?!?
   When judged by the standards I grew up under (and we were by-no-means, poor!), today's "average poor family" would be considered UPPER middleclass!!
The same "average poor family" has (and we didn't have):

Enough "owe-bama Money" to live comfortably without working, and

Big Screen Televisions, and
Video Game Systems, and
Central--or multiple Window--Air Conditioners, and
Dishwashers, and
Personal Computers with Printers, and
Premium Internet Service, and
Cell and/or Cordless Phones, and
Washers and Dryers, and
at least one DVD Player, and
Cable or Satellite Television Service, and
a Microwave, and
Stoves and Ovens!!

A-a-h-h-h!!  If only to be 'poor!!'
Til Nex'Time....