Relentlessly ripping off the poor

First it was the reporting on the situation in Ferguson, Mo.  In the wake of the Michael Brown shooting, many news outlets reported on the odious practice of charging and convicting low income people for minor offenses.  Since many of them can not afford to pay the original fines, the costs escalate and many find themselves in prison for parking fines or speeding tickets.  In many municipalities, a significant portion of the budget is financed by these police actions.  Now, news organizations are looking at dollar stores and seeing the same pattern.  Large companies are targeting poor shoppers who are looking for bargains.  Sales of highly processed, packaged food are off at traditional grocery stores as middle and upper class shoppers heed the call of fresher, nutritious whole foods.  Meanwhile, cash strapped poor people  wind up buying "cheaper", processed garbage at rip-off prices.  It seems everyone wants to target the working and welfare classes to pad their bottom lines.  Then everyone wonders why powder kegs like Ferguson explode when violence, rather than the normal fleecing operations impinge on the inhabitants.