Is It Bad To Be Poor?

Here is a question for you. Is it OK to make fun of the poor? Is there some precedent that has been set by the upper crust of society that makes it OK to mock those that are less fortunate? I think that there must be, between politicians who seem not to worry to much about the poor, they of course being amongst the wealthy, and some preachers who seem to believe that one is poor because they don't have enough faith in G-D, it seems to me that they are saying that there is something wrong with being poor, that we are ,in some intangible way, less deserving of something that I haven't quite put my finger on... I will admit that not having much money in America can be quite a challenge but I find no small amount of irony that in both of the above mentioned cases, we are talking about people who claim to be religious and yet don't seem to follow their worshiped leader in poverty. Jesus was poor from what I remember, so if it was good enough for him why not for them and, for that matter, why wouldn't that be good for all of us? I recently heard about a colleague of a friend of mine who goes out of her way to make fun of those that are poor, or ,should I say, make less money then her and her husband make. She thinks it's stupid that anyone should live in a development area in a ranch style home even suggesting that there is something wrong with you if you are living like that. It's kind of hard for me to digest that kind of thinking, because it's just not the way I think. Most of my friends have a more then I do but I don't begrudge them that, I rather prefer to rejoice in their good fortune rather then wallow in some sort of self pity, so in the reverse I don't really understand why anyone would look down on the poor, unless of course they are jealous. That must be it, they are actually jealous of our poorness, it has to be. Think about it. I don't worry that my friends are angling to get something from me, I don't have anything that they would want, financially speaking, and even if I did,we have all been poor together, so to help them, if I was able ,wouldn't be an issue. When your poor you learn who your real friends are. As a poor person, I don't have to concern myself with stocks and bonds and investments in the stock market. That thing could crash and it wouldn't change anything for me, most wealthy folks can't say that. Don't take me wrong, I am not against wealth per se, I wouldn't be upset if I suddenly found myself well off, but I think the real problem for most is that they forget where they have come from, if they started at the bottom that is, and their desires tend to go way beyond their needs. This , I'm guessing anyhow, is what makes them unhappy and tends to make them scornful of those who don't share, or don't have the means to share, those same desires. Seems to me that if you keep your needs and desires simple, then you will be able to easier fulfill them and as a result you will be a happier person. One last thought on poverty. There have been many rich and famous people who have died recently, some from natural causes , some under tragic circumstances, yet somewhere down the road their names will be forgotten. Yet there are any number of poor folks who will be remembered forever because they changed the world in their poverty. Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Jesus, Abraham ( he became wealthy but he was still a nomad) just to name a few that come to mind. All of these people had nothing and yet they changed the course of history, the course of their country or at the very least they changed the lives of many people and they did it with nothing. So I guess in being poor ,in this country anyhow, I'm in some pretty good company. Shalom