As I sit here, in my room (which is horribly messy), eating Reese's Pieces on my two year old laptop, yes there's cracks in my window and I haven't finished painting the walls but I still live in a house that has three bedrooms and a small acreage outside for a hobby farm. That's not even close to being as bad as the family that I got today in Sociology. Yeah, I might whine and complain that I have to save up for a car and pay for a lot of my own stuff, but there are people who have it worse. This family lived on minimum wage and even though it was lower than what realities minimum wage is, it would still probably equal out to the same amount if we took into consideration today's living costs, etc. These parents work both full time and have a 17 year old son and a 6 year old daughter with a learning disability. Even without having a learning disability, children of any age are expensive and it wouldn't be fair to as the 17 year old to get a job just to make up for what the parents cant pay for. And then for the parents job not to cover any sort of health insurance, they would have to be a very lucky family if they didn't get sick or hurt. And you would want to do the best that you could for your child by paying a tutor to help the six year old even though you can't necessarily fit it in the budget. Along with getting a lower priced apartment comes with the neighborhood you are stuck into. The schools that surround it might not necessarily be fitted with good teachers and so then the kid's education won't be at a level that other kids are at and the low income that the parents already have doesn't help them send him to college even though kids should pay for their own college. Everything just spirals into one. During the budgeting process it was actually surprisingly stressful on how we had to fit so many things into a little spending limit. Its like it was real life and you just wanted everything to work out.
We all take for granted what we actually do have. I take for granted that I work two jobs and even though I have to pay for a lot it doesnt even come close to what people have to deal with in real life. And it was almost unfair to look at the other groups who had so much money and say "well why don't you give me some of your money?" But it doesn't work that way and these people were a deserving poor group.

Also, I just felt as though I really needed to get something off of my chest. Today someone in our class made a comment some wheres along the line of how the six year old was just "dumb" so then why should they budget private tutoring into their life? That is so wrong. On so many levels. No one wants to be born with a disability no matter what it is: whether its learning or physical or a mental disorder. No one chooses to be wired the way they are. And the comment wasn't even meant a different way than it was said. It was a cruel, harsh, and judgmental way to think. Some people just don't understand what reality is and someday, it will come around. That's all.