We've had discussions about "what you feel is clear" vs. "what is clear" before, though. So before you get condescending and pedantic while also getting all "sorry/not sorry" about the situation, consider this:

There's a very real problem in the United States related to structural unfairness and systemic disadvantage towards the poor. That problem persists so long as the people who can actually do something about it - the NOT poor - dismiss it as a function of sloth and/or incompetence, as you so clearly want to do. Further, by painting the poor as lazy and/or stupid, ALL of the problems faced by the poor become functions of being lazy and/or stupid. If it was a "solution that would apply to many people" those many people would likely be applying it, right?

Money's a lot easier to manage when you have some. Take my bus adventures: they were purely academic. I had three credit cards, a job, financial aid and a working automobile I got a rippin' deal on because I was dating a psychiatrist's daughter. More than that, my bus pass was free because I was a student at a 4-year university (although I could sell it back to the U for $38 a quarter, and I did almost every time because I wasn't made of money either). So there I am, saying "fuck that" to 5 hours on the bus for my $75 a night job because I can drive it in an hour and because I'd have to sit around until 6am to come home.

But when I worked swing shift at 7-11 I had coworkers that took taxis to work. That was their only choice, because they couldn't afford cars and because the bus lines in that town stopped at midnight. $6.50 an hour and they're blowing $15 each way just to get to work. Manage that money.

The reason so many people don't use your solution is because for so many of them, it isn't a solution. That means we need other solutions. That means we need to have discussions about how to solve intractable problems that we don't want to consider because it reveals the inequality that we spend our entire lives sheltering ourselves from and pretending doesn't exist. Look - my coworker that spent two thirds of her salary just getting to work? That chick was tryin'. I'm pretty sure half of her remaining salary went towards smokes - nobody's perfect - but I'm also pretty sure that her actual living expenses were covered by welfare. So here she is, schlepping her ass to work every day for net $15, because it kept her safety net functional. And here I am, paying tax dollars into the system so that she can give $30 a night to taxi operators. It doesn't take much debate to determine that paying $20 in taxes to subsidize public transport is a net win for everyone but the taxi company but it takes even less debate to determine that she's not having a rough time keeping her head above water because she's foolish and/or impulsive.

There's EVERY reason to deny that your solution is a solution. Just because our opinions come from the Internet doesn't mean they're invalid... particularly when they're backed up with data.