Poor people are poor, not necessarily stupid. There's an art to "paying bills" when you don't have the money to pay in full. You have to know the payment and delinquency policies of every last one of your utilities, just like you have to know the discount, coupon, and return policies of every store you visit.

It's almost a full-time job in itself. You have to work every system to the bone and have a side-hustle in order to get past the current crisis until your next windfall.

You have kids? Give them a box of $0.05 things and tell them to sell them each for $1.00 . They'll have to learn how to live as poor folk sooner or later, and sales is a marketable skill, whereas panhandling is not. If you can work two jobs, they can work one and still go to school.

Being poor sucks. Don't be poor. If you find yourself being poor, stop as fast as you can. Don't fall for the traps that keep you poor. Don't let the crabs drag you back into their bucket. And never take out a loan in your own name unless the money you take is going to make you more money than what it will cost you to take it.

And for the sake of your mother's honor, if you take a job as a debt collector, tell everyone that you sell heroin and mug people instead.