“This sort of thriftiness is typically jumped on by people who have always wanted to ration the poor. It is held up as the final ‘proof’ that poverty is really not as bad as all that: as long as you have a bit of middle-class pluck and ingenuity tucked away in reserve. If you are too useless to be able to survive on such a lowly amount, it is put down to some piteous deficiency in one’s character.”
