I wouldn't be surprised. One of my call-a-bus (taxi) customers works in the welfare office. She has told me that it is not uncommon for clients to come in with clothing, shoes and accessories (ie expensive radios) that are well above their reasonable price range.
I'm not surprised......... and neither am I surprised that there are some who are so materialistic that they will reproach one person and excuse another.
I had an aunt and uncle who had only one child. Both of them worked. She, as a teacher, was meticulous about her appearance. She retired in the late 70's or early 80's...... to give you an idea of the timing of this..... and had the longest tenure of any school teacher living in the state of Alabama at that time. She hired a full time maid so she could be active in her school, church, and have social events as her husband was a businessman in the small town and was also on the town council. In addition to paying her maid her regular wages..... anything that she tired of wearing or bought and then decided didn't work with her wardrobe, she passed on to her maid. Some things her maid used..... but I'm quite certain some were taken back to her community and were bartered, exchanged, or even sold.
Nowadays few people have maids that cook, clean, do laundry and help with the marketing unless they are wealthy. Chances are she was employed during an era where wages were not controled, and hired under provisions which allowed her to maintain some eligibility for commodities and social benefit programs which were in place at that time....... from a little scatter talk I picked up on when I was young and visiting.
Now adays I see the same thing occurring: During a brief period of unemployment I joined for a couple of days trial with a lady to do housekeeping work. It was long enough to see that in some cases this practice still continues...... rather than bundling things together and taking them to a thrift shop, some who hire domestic or garden help will pass on useful and sometimes even new items with tags still on them.
I know others who having a limited budget on which to shop, but a enjoyment for shopping...... make it a hobby to routinely visit yard sales and thrift stores and develop a good eye for quality and bargains. They know labels and quality and how to dicker down the price.
I'm sure there are some who sponge off the system.... or have a hidden income or sources which enable their materialistic appetites. But in all fairness, one can take a group of poor people who have or display items which say 'money' and came by those items in many different ways.... some legal and some not so legal, some as the result of another's benevolence and some due to their own bargain hunting smarts or willingness to do a repair on a good item another discarded as worthless.
With the current economy going the way it is....... it is very likely that those who have never been in the position that Donna speaks of, will learn through their own experience what it can feel like......particularly when they discover that it sometimes takes a lot more industry in the home (foods from scratch instead of pricey conveinence foods, mending and sewing clothes, preserving the produce gifts or bargains one finds, etc.) to fight the strain on the budget so that one has no time left for bargain shopping if they devote what remaining time is left to children and spouse.
There's a broad cultural and range of values among the poor. There are some families that are extended where shopping is a group event for several adults and children: they share the load of cooking and child care. They may delegate the care of younger chilren to the watch of older children so they can participate in their bargain hunting or other social activities. Because they share the economes of their domestic labors and their material goods, they are able to extend their monies beyond that which others might suppose who lack that advantage of culture and communal agreement within the family. It comes with a price, in somecases, because the values which the children receive may be more diverse from those of their own parents due to frequent and influencial exposure of greater diversity represented by behaviors which are accepted in other family members.
I dare say that there are some who see the display of expensive accessories or clothing in a voluteer service to the poor as being a challenge of worth and personal self value, there will be some who will covet..... and that becomes a tease or a temptation to try and duplicate by any means possible, and there may be some who wouldn't care or notice who are not materialistic..... unless someone points it out.
Whatever....it was rediculous when something was made of Palin when she had the help of the campaign staff concerned to make her into their image, and it is ridiculous to make something of the first lady when she dresses like the first lady. It would have done nothing for the poor if she'd showed up in tattered jeans, a tee shirt and flip flops. They would have known better.... and her appearance would have then been an insult.
Its the people who control the news and wish to make these things an issue who are contributing their part ..... from the 'right' and from the 'left' who are working to divide our country by increasing the consciousness of our differences.
Personally, if I were poor and in a food line being served by the first lady, it would be okay....... if that's what she was doing, did enough to make it look like work, and looked me in the eye with behavior or comments which spoke of sincerity and neither judgement of worth or pity. However, what would revolt me, is for her appearance to be so brief, or accommodated by such fanfare surrounding her that I felt like I or the poor around me were little more than staged props for the advancement of whatever image and political agenda was up. That I would have no respect for!
