Something that always bugs me in these arguments is the scorn heaped upon the dumb.
Some people are dumb. What should they do? Just get smarter? Pray to the intelligence fairy? Stop existing? Being slow is not a moral failing. It’s just a reality, and surely we can do something better for people who apparently can’t multiply than gleefully fleece them out of their last dollar.
I think what is being missed here is the symbolic value of a sofa. When you know your poverty is temporary, and that you have the resources to eventually get out of said poverty, doing without a sofa seems prudent-- you know it will lead to improvement down the road. The sofa doesn’t mean much to you. Indeed, it may even feel like motivation. Let’s rally the troops and get to the point that we can go to Ikea.
But when you feel that your poverty is permanent, that the life you have now is the best that it’s going to be, it’s a completely different trade off. You don’t see it as “no sofa now leads to more stuff later.” You see it as “I can have my kids on lawn chairs, or I can have a sofa like a normal family for a while and maybe even hold on to it.”