I was lucky, I was born poor so not having throwaway money just isn't an issue for me. Frugality is my natural state.
Yeah - I know hard times... We were always 'high class rednecks', meaning that our house didn't have axles under it - But I was farm raised, with chores and gardens, and putting up for a rainy day... I remember times when I had 13-patch pants - My mom would fix them that many times before I got a new pair...
And in my own house, we went through hard times too... The fight to be successful (even limited success) was not always pretty. But that's exactly what I wanted to be sure was put into my kids.
You are right to say you were lucky to be born poor... Because when SHTF (and it will at some point for most folks), poor folks weather that sort of thing far better than those who have so very far to fall. The tools it takes for getting by are never lost.
To really help the poor men like this should be slashing taxes and regulation wherever they find them. That lifts a pile of rocks off the backs of the poor so they can begin to increase their own value and standard of living.
As always, it seems, we agree.
Had a lad that lived down the way from my pre-finish paint shop... His daddy died in military service, and his mamma was making do with 3 kids... The boy had a serious sense of being 'the man of the house', and helping his mamma out. He was too young to hire, so I paid him cash out-of-pocket to sweep up around the place and sometimes gave him projects that if he completed them well, I would pay him with things he or his family needed - a bike, a tv, a computer, etc...
You wouldn't believe the trouble I got into for 'hiring' that kid. And worse than the fines and penalties, I was prevented from ever hiring the kid as he came of age, when he had a shoe-in for an apprenticeship.
The stupidity of the system punished me for helping to take the edge off for that family, and for teaching the boy a trade and a decent work ethic. It punished him by taking away that income and teaching... and it punished his mamma and his whole house by denying them the little bit he could bring in.
That goes right to that 'pile of rocks' you're talking about.