Exactly. Poverty has changed. We used to visit my Uncle and Aunt, they did not have indoor plumbing and their phone was a party line. They heated their house and cooked with kerosene; they filled the tanks at a gas station. They did have electricity. I did not think of them as poor, but they did have to get a loan from my Dad to get a new car. They did not have a regular paycheck to qualify for a loan. My uncle was a Maine Guide and that is an old school gig job. I had another Uncle who had a cabin he lived in in the summer that did not have indoor plumbing and did not have electricity. I spent many weeks at that cabin. I never consider him poor either but I doubt he had medical insurance except maybe thru the VA but he live far away from a VA hospital and that was before VA paid for treatments outside of their system.

I probably would not have had the calculator except that it was a necessity for my education. I got the handguns before I went to college back when I did not have to budget, I could spend my earnings more as I wished. I had been working since I was 13 years old. I did not start saving for college until the year before I went to college.

When I was in college I was poor but not precarious. I could always have dropped out of school and worked full time to support myself fine and I had family I could count on if I was sick or hurt. My parents paid the bill when I had my wisdom teeth pulled. I would not have done it if I had to pay. They were not impacted or anything. After that I went years without seeing a dentist or doctor.

The poor now have more luxuries and eat more tasty food than the working class did when I was growing up.

Yes, the poor people from when I was growing up were better off than the working class from before WWII. The great depression was very hard times.

TEK