It's easy to say that when you're well provided for, but one of the recurring themes I've heard from people in poverty is that your thinking literally changes to survival mode. So, I'm with you, in that it seems like there's an easy solution to this particular problem, but when you're scrambling for shelter and food, I can totally see how I wouldn't be able to approach a problem like this from a higher level.

Another element, I suspect, is that washing dishes takes precious time and energy, that an impoverished person probably doesn't have. It's easier to just throw away the dish. I'm not judging. If I stood on my feet for 6-8 hours doing grueling menial labor, I'd be exhausted, too.

I think us here on HN can have a tremendous impact on different levels of poverty if we listen to the struggles of impoverished people, and then use our well-fed, psychologically-safe minds to help brainstorm higher-level solutions.