We've Seen our Day of Poor

My husband and I were at a conference a couple of weeks ago and there was a young man at our table with whom we were conversing.  (Do you every hear anyone talk like that?  Conversing?).   Anyway, we introduced ourselves and told him that we have a small business in town.  The "occupy protestors" topic came up and he indicated he was sympathetic to their cause while my husband and I indicated we were not.  At one point he said "You guys have probably never seen a day of poor in your lives".  We were both stunned for a second and then we pounced on him to set him straight.  Luckily for him, the speaker for the conference started, otherwise he would have gotten an earful.
My husband is part of a large family (nine children) that grew up in a tiny community in Saskatchewan in an old house with no central heating.  Upstairs where they slept, during the night in the middle of winter, the inside of the house was just about as cold as the outside.  His mother hung the laundry outside to dry summer and winter.  I'm surprised she still has all her fingers.  I have known her for approximately 35 years and I have never heard her complain about any of it.
I grew up in Saskatoon with my three sisters and we did have central heating, however, not much else.  After my dad left (which turned out to be a good thing) my mother was on social assistance--which back then was nothing like it is today.  She struggled, but she managed to feed and clothe us.  Then when we were all in school, she got a job and worked hard to keep things going.  I never heard her complain either.
I am not complaining here either, just stating how it was.  My husband and I started with nothing, we got married young and had two children right away.  We worked hard to get ahead and made the necessary sacrifices to do so.  We certainly didn't expect any help from the government (other than a student loan) or from any else (well, maybe a little babysitting from my mom and sister wile I went back to school).  The point is, we did it on our own and it never occurred to us to complain about our lot in life.
I think the occupy crowd is under the impression that society owes them a living--not just any living though, they want it all and they want it right now.  And who is this society that owes them?  It's you and me and all the other working stiffs who do what we can to get by or, if we work hard enough, do more that just get by.
We've seen our day of poor.  The question is, have they?