Still Can't Afford To Be Poor

I was in a bad mood last June when I wrote this post complaining about laws that make being poor a hell of a lot harder than it is already. I was in an even worse mood last week when I read the infuriating story of Christine Stevens, the Arizona woman kicked out of her own house because zoning codes require a working refrigerator, whereas she made do with an icebox (one of several things she did to save money after losing her job).

I ranted about it over at the Guardian's America blog:

If you see a woman drowning the decent thing to do is toss her a life buoy, or at least leave her the hell alone; sitting on her head to push her deeper under water is wholly unacceptable behaviour. Unless you live in America and work for some local-level housing authority, in which case it's part of your job.

The rest of the piece is here. I don't know what infuriates me more: that the law makes life harder than it already is, or that the law insists it's for your own good.