People are poor because they are following the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger's directive to forgo college and to work part time so they can go full time out in field circus. And now they are telling people that the resulting poverty is no excuse to miss boasting sessions or stint on field circus. I wouldn't be surprised if they come up with an equally lame excuse now with high gas prices.
As was put out in a thread a few months back, I remember a hounder-hounder talk posted here where the three acceptable excuses were fever, fracture, or funeral. You had to be sick with a fever, have a fracture and not be able to walk, or be at your own funeral to have a valid excuse to miss a boasting session. Nowhere did it say you could not afford the gas to get to the boasting session.
Once again, as with that thread, I will reduce it to the basic. There is one (and only one) good reason to miss a boasting session. If the total cost of attending will reasonably exceed the realistically expected benefit, you should miss it. The total cost includes money for gas, time to heal up if sick or tired, or whatever else you could be doing at that time. If that cost is higher than the total benefit, you are creating deadweight if you go anyway. However, if you reasonably expect to get more benefit from going than the total cost, and it is not based on fraud, you will lose the difference between the cost and the benefit if you do not go. Quite simple, and quite self-enforcing.