I live in a medium-sized city with a lot of low income families, but I was still surprised to hear that some of the younger people here are stealing food and money from the elderly.
Excellent idea, anything to put a buffer between us and the bottom. Most people I know in my situation are getting pretty desperate because they lack any support system.
I graduated from college in May with a business degree in IT and no debt, but my first job was one of those 533,000. I'm less worried about healthcare or my retirement and more worried about becoming homeless. Every day I thank the middle school teacher who told me to avoid debt at all costs.