[Michael.SF.]

From your link I lifted this gem: But this has not been easy on Zac's parents. Laurence Sunderland, a shipwright whose business has suffered because of the recession, reluctantly conceded in an interview that the odyssey has cost about $140,000, and that the family is sinking hopelessly into debt and now must pay for Zac's passage through the Panama Canal.

So pops spend $140,000 to finance his kid. That does not sound like a "poor family" to me. It sounds like a family with misplaced priorities.

They may be broke, but that is because they are also stupid.

[jimbo123]

They borrowed the money. They are in debt. Dad doesn’t have a job. And now they don’t have any advertising sponsors to foot the bill as they have for the past 3 years.