[danaris]

> Obviously, you can't undestant what you do not experience yourself

Sure you can. That's what imagination and empathy are for.

I've never been truly poor myself (though I did grow up what I would term lower-middle-class), but I can understand it, because I've read about it, I know the basic concepts of what the differences are between my situation and that situation, and I'm good at putting myself in someone else's shoes and seeing things from their perspective.

[andyana]

No, you can try to understand, but you have no way of knowing how it really is. As a male, I can try to understand pregnancy. There is no amount of learning that would beat the experience of a mother.

[ddingus]

I grew up poverty myself. While I do not entirely disagree with you, poverty is an experience available to all of us.

Women have pregnancy to themselves.

That does blunt your point some.

I also believe people can come to understand well enough to matter when they seek that understanding.

The raw nature of it may remain elusive, the part of your point I consider strong, but what it means is a different, shareable thing.

And I have shared it to great effect. Many have.

In my view, one of the most important things struggling people can do is share their stories. That does add up. Others can feel something of it and can reason better about it.

A national dialog of this kind is missing and too many of us need what a dialog like that can mean.