Boy does that sound mean, it's not what you think so hear me out.  I was listening to the radio at about 5 this morning and they were interviewing a victim of both Rita and Katrina.  An elderly man, retired, living off his military pension and social security.  He talked about how he found his apartment in 3ft of water after Katrina that ruined all his belongings and I felt bad for him.  He went on to say how broke he is that the money he's getting isn't enough and he can't afford things like renters insurance.  He was angry at FEMA for not giving him the $1500 debit card he was "entitled" to, from what he said, because he was 7 days late picking it up, I felt bad for him.  He was in the midst of another hurricane, this time Rita that was pummeling his apartment and what little he had left would surely be destroyed and he had no money to replace it all, I felt bad for him.  At the end of the interview, of all the bad that has happened he was most upset that the superdome was not fixed because his season tickets were going to waste...I no longer feel sorry for him in the least...I don't think the problem is so much that people are poor, but that they lack the common sense of what is good use of the money they do have...