Perhaps I’m missing something, or just from another generation. But what exactly do people think “bare essentials” represents?
When you say this to me...it means that I’ve got just enough money in my pocket for a loaf of white bread (the cheapest stuff possible) and ten slices of cheap bologna meat. I’ll sip tap water from some park fountain for liquid refreshment.
Once you have a cellphone on you, have sufficient funds to buy beer or French water from the Alps, and wear a pair of $70 tennis shoes...we are beyond bare essentials.
Maybe some people are pretending they are bare essential-types, but frankly, I don’t see too many of these folks.
The giverment gets to define “poor” for us, you hater. /sarc
There's also the culture differences with society today focusing so much on multiculturalism. I know all my family members have cell phones to keep track of their kids...it's a safety factor as much as anything else with society as dangerous as it is today.
Where, pray tell can you find this? Surely not 'Boar's Head'.