Thoughts on poverty

The above image is of the Irish potato famine. While I am NOT that poor, it is worth noting that I am pretty impoverished.

Which is weird, because I have a decent job. I mean, I have insurance, I get paid a reasonable sum (I suppose), and I live frugally, yet I am constantly scraping and surviving. What gives?

I noticed that I got a HUGE chunk of my check eaten up by taxes recently. Damn you, Iraq war. Damn you all to hell! Actually, damn you income taxes. Well, I'm not completely against income taxes. I like roads and infrastructure. I like public safety measures. I just wish I could eat something other than ramen for once! (My stomach hurts as I write that)

How does the internet deal wiht poverty? Not very well, I would venture to guess. For one, poor people don't generally have access to the Internet to begin with. They most likely don't have computers, so the idea of the Internet is kind of moot to them, I imagine. And as bad as it might sound, I DO have a laptop at home, and an internet connection (thank you upstairs neighbors with the unlocked WiFi signal!), so I'm not doing all that bad. It's these little comparisons that make me feel better about my situation.

You know what I wish? I wish we still had a prairie, a frontier. I wish we had free land open to any individuals that were willing and able to work their asses off to cultivate it. In that way, the Internet is kind of frontier-y. Except that you can't make a house on the Internet (yet).