Agreed. Neil works in construction… as does my brother, who owns a half-million-dollar house, three cars, and supports a wife and five kids with that income. And Neil’s a supervisor… and somehow he’s barely getting by.
Now, a plausible explanation would be that when Lynette died, the doctors went to extraordinary lengths to save her, and they were very expensive, and Neil got saddled with the entirety of that hospital bill.
I have a friend who nearly lost her life to Covid, and her bill was in the millions. Without health insurance, she’d be paying that (and her student loans) off for life. If Neil was uninsured—if he’s non-union and his bosses shafted him—of course he’s poor, and might be poor forever. And if he earns enough money to pay those giant bills and a mortgage, he’s not eligible for government aid.
So: implausible, but not impossible. It’s just DPC never fully explained the poverty.