Not everyone finds themself in poverty due to their own decisions. As an example, it certainly wasn’t my decision for my former employer to cut staff and put me out on the street. 13 years of excellent performance reviews meant nothing when it came time to cut costs. It’s condescending at best to tell someone “it’s your fault” when we have no more information than what’s in the OP.
I’m not entirely sure what you mean by that, but cautioning someone that a suggested route is no easy fix hardly classifies one as “complete idiot”. As it happens, I have been hanging on for the past year doing exactly the sort of odd jobs suggested. It has been extremely precarious.
Poverty sucks, as I’ve said before, and anyone in the OP’s predicament needs to vent. Stating such real-life obstacles as “I don’t have a car” is hardly complaining in the normal sense. It’s a real obstacle. It’s no different than when someone a month ago suggested I join the military and I pointed out that they don’t accept people over 40 for basic training. It’s not a complaint so much as a request for another suggestion or a way around an obstacle. But then, since I’ve been where the OP is perhaps I have more empathy and sympathy and can read past the frustration.
Yes, I’ve cut back on expenses, pounded the pavement, submitted resumes, considered moving, appealed to local government and agencies for assistance and so forth. It’s still not enough. What I need is fulltime employment at a living wage (which minimum wage is not) and I don’t give a damn whether it’s skilled or unskilled. Fact is, at least in my area, a lot of the unskilled jobs are going to people who HAVE experience in skilled work, or college degrees, or decades of work experience leaving the young, the inexperienced, and the less educated out in the cold (in some cases, literally). I put in a garden last summer to grow some of my own food. I’ve been selling off my possessions for the last two months. It’s still not enough. If I don’t get something in the next few months I will be homeless, as will my disabled husband.
Monday of this week there was a three block line at the unemployment office as of 8 am in the morning. There are NO, repeat NO want ads in the local papers, not even for crap jobs. It’s been like that for weeks. The expectation is that it will only get worse.
So, when someone shows up with a tale of woe and some of their posts are a little pissy I cut them some slack because in at least some places in the US it is looking pretty hopeless right now. When you’re poor and struggling there really is a lot to be frustrated and angry about, and I am willing to give the poor and struggling some space to let it out. Being able to unload is part of what enables a person to get out of bed on Monday morning and hit the streets again knowing they will hear the word “no” over and over again for the next eight hours, the next week, the next month, until they finally get that yes. The last thing someone struggling needs is a verbal slap in the face because they aren’t all happy and chipper 100% of the time.