I think it's fairly rude to asusme that I, or those who disagree with you in general, are "sheep". I read the Times mostly, and also mostly disagree with it. I too have my own opinions, but hope instead that they will change when necessary, when I'm shown to be wrong.
I think it's dangerous for you to assume you are not a "sheep", though I'm not meaning to call you one. But you do seem to post a lot of news items here from the Daily Mail and believe what is in there to be a fair reflection of modern life. I don't think it is, and I think your believing that picture suggests that you are guided by the opinions of others more than you admit.
Not that this post was about poverty, but some of what you said earlier does ring true by the way. I don't want to insult today's poor, but even so the "poverty line" has got a lot higher. I think that's a good thing, though. Poverty was a far greater issue in your childhood than today. Even so there are today still many people, far too many anyway, who are seriously poor.