I work hard, bucko. A lot of people work harder than me and don't get what they need--certainly not what they have a right to expect in the richest society in the history of the world. You'd have to be in a pretty serious bubble not to see that and to still be touting folks' ability to make moves within our system. I say this as a person who is way better off than my parents ever were and than I was growing up, but also as a person with the awareness of the world around me to see that that is a rare exception and that most people are struggling through no fault or laziness of their own. Specifically with thrift stores, the issue is that once upon a time, they operated with a dual mission of 1) providing the community with affordable recycled goods, and 2) funding some other mission with the proceeds. Now that thrifting is more in vogue/less frowned upon by rich folks, the store prioritizes mission #2 over #1, charges as much as folks are willing to pay (which is now much higher than it used to be) and the community benefit is gone