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Since we're clearly doing politics here, I'm going to throw in a few points:
- RE scotrace's comments on the seeming "targeting" of the poor. There is no worse offender than the gov't itself and its abusive lottery business that (1) makes better paying private lotteries illegal (creates a gov't monopoly - the only monopoly some seem to like) and, then, (2) targets the poor neighborhoods in its advertising. Effectively, gov't run lotteries are a brutally regressive tax on the poor that takes money away from their insufficient-to-start budgets for food, shelter and healthcare. Here's a good piece on it (it is a paid site - sorry - but if you have access, it's worth the read): https://www.wsj.com/articles/powerbull-the-lottery-loves-poverty-1503868287?tesla=y
- I respectfully disagree with some of the above posts on this issue: I don't think the working poor or poor our "invisible" to our society any more than I believe we don't discuss racism. While the later gets more attention, both are, IMHO, not ignored, but what really creates the rub is that we (society) haven't agreed on a direction forward. I want to emphasize my point here - I am not arguing for the left's or right's solution / direction for poverty or race issues, but just highlighting that these are not buried issues (hidden form view / not discussed / not debated). It is our lack of political consensus that creates frustration and the, IMHO, misrepresentation that the issues are swept away - they aren't, there's just no political agreement that garners enough votes or social agreement that creates a cultural consensus.