> > They should put a tax on poverty. That would put the government in the black in a hurry.
>
> Depends on how you define poverty, of course. There's a lot of severe poverty elsewhere in the world, but (with exceptions) the poor of today live as well as the kings of yesterday. Some live better than the middle class. Anyone who's ever worked in a grocery store or convenience store has stories of people purchasing food with food stamps, while wearing some pretty expensive clothes and driving some pretty expensive cars. Not that all the "poor" have it this well, of course, but even most legitimately poor folks in the U.S. still have a higher standard of living than *anybody* did not very long ago in human history.

Right. I've noticed that in this country, a lot of "poor" people are fat.

Back in the 1970's I was principal of a small elementary school in a poorer section of town. I knew which families were on welfare and almost all of them drove a better car than I did. They knew how to get the school system to provide food, clothing, and medical care for their children, so of course, they could afford a nice car.
Howard