[HPLovecraft]

I can't speak for East Vancouver, but from my experience, actual poverty more than exists in this country. I've experienced it first hand living in a rural community, and here in Toronto in areas. However, city living is entirely different to country living, and the types of poverty are different, too. Some rural communities and households in Canada are brutal when it comes to poverty compared to what you'll see in cities.

I grew up in poverty in one of those rural communities (actually several), and at 26, I'm still struggling with some aspects of it, though I am better off than I ever was before, and I am still improving, but it was never because I smoke (I don't), or I spend all my money on booze (I don't drink), or that I gamble (I don't gamble), but because escaping from a poverty you were raised in is a difficult thing to do. Not everyone succeeds, as it seems you did. And while the type of poverty has changed somewhat over the centuries (obviously people generally don't starve to death on a city street any longer, and don't live in wooden huts), there is still poverty very similar to what you experienced existent in this country. Not everyone goes on vacation to Mexico (or vacation to anywhere, really), not everyone has a reliable car, and not everyone has food in their fridge to feed their kids at all times. It baffles me that you would assume that.

It almost seems, not particularly from you, but from many people I've spoken to offline and online, that there is an almost disdain for those in poverty these days, as if they are assumed to be there because of their spending habits alone, and those criticising them are in general better people because of their greater supposed fiscal responsibility. It's an odd thing to come across.