Thanks, zonk, for posting this. I was just catching up with the paper edition of the Sunday NYT and came across this article. It was fascinating and believable. I read a couple of articles criticizing him, particularly one from Salon that seemed justifiably angry that Polk would condescend to hungry people telling them that what they needed, in addition to food, was food education.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the article is how it classifies money addiction to be similar to other addictions and so much more dangerous to the entire society.

Wealth addiction was described by the late sociologist and playwright Philip Slater in a 1980 book, but addiction researchers have paid the concept little attention. Like alcoholics driving drunk, wealth addiction imperils everyone. Wealth addicts are, more than anybody, specifically responsible for the ever widening rift that is tearing apart our once great country. Wealth addicts are responsible for the vast and toxic disparity between the rich and the poor and the annihilation of the middle class.

All addictions are hard to break. I would think that money addiction, if it exists, would be the hardest, since there are so many rewards.