in 2000, I lost my job, my house, my car. I was couch surfing for 6 months as I was competing with 60k other unemployed tech people in Denver for 6k tech jobs. During that time, I worked restaurant work. I went from 90k a year to 19k. I spent the next two years busting my ass, living in crap conditions, until I finally started working my way back up and out. Yes, I've been there. I could have sat and cried and gone 'woe is me', but I didn't, I sucked it up, took jobs that were way beneath what I was used to, and finally recovered, without any welfare, or state/govt bennies minus 3 months of unemployment benefits, so, yes, I think I can say that willpower, the desire to have something different, goes a long ass way to change being poor.