Over the weekend I poured over this piece from Linda Tirado. The 32-year old wrote a long forum post about Why People In Poverty Make Terrible Decisions - like eating fast food or consistently smoking, despite knowing the dangers. It is a long piece that covers a lot of ground but it never strays into a tone of animosity or chiding - it's merely explanatory as to just how hard it is to be in poverty.

The general assumption of the poor is that they're lazy or intentionally not working too hard to get themselves out of their situation but, truth be told, you can work incredibly hard and make no movement upward. Tirado's piece is fantastic top to bottom. It gives perspective that you probably thought you had but never had the specifics to go along with it.