1)What's laughable to me is that you think it's possible to feed a family of three with $1000-$1500 annually allocated to food. Where it gets into ludicrous territory is that of that $1500 max, you will also be able to find enough calories to not just live, but train as a full-time professional runner. Just over $100/month. Three people. One of whom burns an additional 2000/day as part of his job.
2)You're terrible at math. Using my examples above:
Rent - Roughly $700
Food - $100 (your numbers, ridiculous, but I'll go with it)
Ins. - $600 (my numbers, which are ridiculous as well. real insurance is more like $350/mo/person)
$1400/month. Times 4 months. With outrageously low estimates. 4 months of living expenses is $5600.
Yet you still claim that $20k can get you all the necessities and not sacrifice leisure or retirement or emergency funding? With a family of three?
Again, I'll concede that yes, you can probably find a way to make it work. Not without outside assistance of sacrificing things like healthcare (certainly college and retirement). My point is that if you choose this living for your family, you're an a-hole.
You're talking about raising kids. Yes, raising kids is something people can be good or bad at whether they're rich or poor. Though I do tend to agree with you, anecdotal evidence regarding the character of someone based on their social class is not a great argument. Areas with higher poverty rates unanimously have higher crime rates, so where are all those good, poor kids you coached? The answer is that they're overwhelmed by the majority of lower class children who resort to crime.