For starters, “most” people don’t work three jobs, obviously, and the U.S. is in fact a very wealthy country with a vast middle class. Second, anybody who wants to can go to college. I went on student loans and Pell Grants. Third, we don’t have universal health care in this country, but poor people actually do get care and are insured, via Medicaid. Cancer patients aren’t left to die in the street.

It’s good that there are so many discussions on the internet about the people who fall though the cracks, but it can create an inaccurate picture of reality, which is what seems to have happened to this observer. On the facts, she has a confused understanding of both the typical and the extreme American experience.