Any other centrist atheists?

[Violet]

Well if someone made 7.50 an hour, and worked 40 hours a week, they would be making about 1200 dollars a month.

Moment of your time here... very few people who make minimum wage are allowed 40 hours a week. Hell, my girlfriend's only given some 15-25 in a normal week... and this is far from a rare experience among people I know. Walmart, in particular, will not let overtime happen if it has anything to say about it

That is before taxes of course. Taxes hurt the poor more than anyone else because that extra 200 dollars means so much more to them.

Indeed... it's brutal.

But assuming it's 1000 dollars after taxes, you aren't going to be homeless with that much money. If you struggle then you are bad with money or live somewhere too expensive. Except for the homeless, who overwhelmingly have mental or drug problems. People who have never lived or even traveled to the third world just don't have a good comparison.

Healthy food and water dig pretty hard... especially considering that poor people often have a family. 1000 dollars pretty much disappears when you have kids to support.

Many places in America are too expensive for 1000 dollars a month. The poor rely on social safety nets at that point... and relocating often costs money that such a person doesn't have. Not to forget their paycheck-absent weeks in a new job hunt...

There's a reason homelessness is correlated to 'mental problems' and drug (ab)use... sure, surviving any particular hell is possible. Living hell? That's miserable. Drugs can do a lot for you if you're so anesthetized to the world that it's all that's keeping you going... and the mind fractures far more easily under such duress as homelessness.