Some of the happiest moments in my life happened when we were very poor. Sometimes I wonder if being poor for awhile is actually an advantage in some ways, provided it doesn't last forever. Can a person really understand what poverty is like if they have never experienced it?
When I see people on the side of the road begging, I just drive by if it is a nice day out. Often wonder what their situation is. A couple winters ago we were driving down the road and at was about 20 below zero and windy. On a street corner I saw an old man and his dog with a sign asking for help. I drive right by him as always and my wife and I started talking about this. I said wait a minute nobody should be outdoors in this weather, the guy and his dog are going to freeze to death. This guy might be begging, but I can't think of anything that would be harder to do than whàt he was doing. He had to be totally desperate. So we turned around went by the old man again and my wife gave him a hundred dollar bill and pretty much ordered him to get off the street. He looked stunned said thank you you don't know how much this means and took off. We felt good about it and didn't feel like what we did was stupid at all.
I have and I'm sure many of us have been around both rich and poor people. I know for a fact there are very good people in both groups. And there are some very bad people in both groups.