There's something about a struggling single mom that provokes the perfect people.

The perfect people -- those who have always made the best choices and the right decisions -- perk up whenever I write about single mothers in difficult circumstances. Recently, I shared the stories of two such women: a mother of four working at Amazon, and a pregnant mom working at Arby's. Their jobs don’t pay enough to cover child care and basic necessities for their families. It shouldn't be controversial to say that a person working a full-time job in America ought to be able to provide food and shelter for their kids, or that young children obviously need someone to watch them while their parents work.

Hearing these mothers' stories made me feel disgusted that some politicians would rather give trillion-dollar tax cuts to corporations and the wealthiest people than renew a child tax credit that had lifted millions of kids out of poverty.

I was raised to try to imagine other people’s situations and feel compassion for those in bad circumstances. I assume this is how most people are raised.

But reading about these women's hardships triggered a number of people in an entirely different way.

Phillip, for example, wrote this about the mother working 50 to 60 hours a week at Amazon, a company that makes billions in profits: "I have no sympathy for (her) whatsoever ... In most cases having a child is a choice, not an accident. If (she) had given a moment's thought to the consequences of having a child, she would have realized that she couldn't afford one child, much less four."

He was one of several who responded by attacking the life choices of financially strapped moms: How dare they have a child while poor? Why couldn't they just get a better job? Where was the father?

These people seem ignorant of how a person's life circumstances could be different from their own. A few factors to consider: Not everyone goes to schools that prepare them for college or higher-paying jobs. Partners or spouses sometimes leave their families and shirk their responsibilities. In America, 40% to 50% of marriages end in divorce. Some people get sick or marry the wrong person or experience a streak of bad luck.

What kind of bubble must one live in to never have met someone whose life has taken an unexpected or difficult turn while they have children to support?

Also, I'm surprised this has to be spelled out, but a woman cannot control 100% of the factors that can lead to pregnancy: Birth control can fail. Partners can lie or refuse to use contraception. Women can be coerced or pressured into sex.

Conceiving a child is not a one-person job, although the consequences of having a baby disproportionately affect women.

Interestingly, a number of the emails condemning these single working moms came from men. None of them suggested making contraception free and easily accessible. (Birth control can cost up to $2,000 a year, depending on what your doctor recommends.) None of them criticized the complete ban on abortion in Missouri and other states.

You would think that those who want women to avoid having children when it would create a financial strain on their households would also be advocating for reproductive freedom and universal access to birth control.

And regardless of how you feel about a woman's personal choices, why would anyone be against ensuring all babies and children have their basic needs met? Children can't go out and get a job to support themselves. It's pretty heartless to want to see babies born into poverty suffer.

I was taken aback by the lack of empathy -- the angry rants and the blame -- for working moms who can't make ends meet.

Of course, there are also those who respond to these stories by asking how they can help. Not all of us can do that every time we encounter someone in a bad situation.

But it doesn't cost anything to care.

Kaamilya Hobbs, eight months pregnant at the time, tried to stay out of her sweltering Kansas City apartment as much as possible during the record-setting heat wave in August.

But there was no escaping the stifling heat and thick humidity at night.

Hobbs, 31, and her partner were behind on their electric bill, and the company had turned their power off earlier in the month. Hobbs tossed and turned in bed for nearly three weeks, barely sleeping. Their 18-month-old baby screamed because it was so hot.

"There was no way to cool him off except for using paper fans," she said.

Hobbs has worked at Arby's for the past four years, where she makes minimum wage. Her schedule had been cut to 20 hours. Her partner lost his job several months ago; he now stays at home with their baby and sells his plasma twice a week.

It hasn't been enough to make ends meet.

"We're trying to make it work," Hobbs said. "But it's very difficult."

In America, twice as many women as men earn the minimum wage. In Missouri, the number of women living in poverty has increased despite more women earning bachelor's degrees. Working full-time at the $12-an-hour minimum wage would earn a Missouri worker just below $25,000 annually. That's assuming not a single day is taken off.

Missouri does not require companies to offer any paid maternity or family leave.

Hobbs said that after her first baby was born, her manager at Arby's asked her to come back to work a week later. She took additional unpaid time off then, but she's not sure what she will do this time.

She and her partner have fallen about $1,400 behind on the rent.

Her due date is Oct. 8.

Her family's eviction date is the next day. They don't have another place to stay yet.

"We have to figure that out," Hobbs said.

During the days when the temperature was over 100 degrees, she focused on staying hydrated, especially since her pregnancy is high-risk. One night, the temperature in their apartment got so high, she couldn't even keep water down. She was throwing up whenever she tried to drink.

She ended up in the emergency room with heat exhaustion.

The lack of power meant they couldn't keep the baby's milk cold in the fridge. They had to switch him back to formula, which doesn't have to be refrigerated. She used the DailyPay program at work, which allows hourly employees to get paid for the hours worked on the same day, just to keep up with diapers and some basic expenses.

"I hate us not being able to provide everything that he needs," she said.

Listening to her story, it's hard to imagine that in a country as wealthy as America, the most vulnerable people live in these conditions: A mother with a baby at home, in her third trimester of pregnancy, is working as many hours as she can get and is still barely hanging on to an apartment without air conditioning or electricity during the hottest days of the year.

It is shameful that it's so difficult to get assistance in these situations.

Hobbs said it was painful for her to share her family's story. She doesn't like asking for help. A social worker has given the family a list of resources to call. Hobbs, who has been exhausted these days, hopes to connect with an organization that might be able to help them find a place to move next month after she gives birth.

Recently, someone at her job heard through the grapevine that her family had been without power for a few weeks.

One of her Arby's co-workers paid off their $500 bill so their lights could be turned back on.

Hobbs found out during one of her shifts and started crying.

"It was really hard for me to hear that," she said. "But I was really grateful for it."

She said she couldn't thank her co-worker enough.

That night, she slept.

Kayla Breitbarth can't afford child care even though she works 50 to 60 hours a week at an Amazon fulfillment center in St. Peters, Missouri.

She relies on family members to watch the younger three children while she picks up enough hours to try to support her family.

"If I work less than that, I can't pay my bills. I already struggle to pay my bills or buy groceries," she said. Breitbarth began working at the Seattle-based tech and e-commerce giant four years ago. She moved to Swansea, Illinois, from Washington state two years ago to be closer to family who could help her with child care. Breitbarth commutes an hour each way because this location allows her to set her schedule each week, giving her some flexibility when her children are sick or have a doctor's appointment.

But despite the long hours, help from her family and monthly visits to a food pantry, her family is barely scraping by on the wage that Amazon pays her.

Meanwhile, Amazon reported $6.7 billion in profit for the three months ending in June. Jeff Bezos, the third-richest person in the world, who derives his wealth from ownership of Amazon stock, is worth an estimated $162 billion.

"They can afford to have some sort of in-house day care, but they don't," Breitbarth said. The company doesn't offer her any discount or credit for child care.

"They can afford to do things like that, but they choose not to," she said.

Kelli Kee, communications director of Progress MO, said Breitbarth's situation illustrates a growing disparity for Missouri women. More women in the state are becoming more educated and moving into better jobs, but more women are also living in poverty.

Kee cited these statistics:

In 2004, only 20.3% of Missouri women had earned a bachelor's degree or higher. By 2018, that figure had risen to 29.4%.

During those same years, Missouri women employed in managerial or professional positions increased from 35.1% to 40.1%.

But these achievements haven't translated into better economic outcomes for women.

In 2004, 11.1% of Missouri women lived in poverty; that figure has increased to 15.5% compared to 13.3% of men.

A study by the Center for American Progress found that mothers who were unable to find a child care program were significantly less likely to be employed than those who found child care, whereas there was no impact on fathers' employment.

"Mothers said that if they had access to more affordable and reliable child care, they would increase their earnings and progress in their careers by finding a higher-paying job, applying for a promotion, seeking more hours at work, or finding a job in the first place," the report stated.

Kee questioned why Missouri lawmakers have not addressed the child care deserts, where there are no affordable child care options for working parents. Additionally, the burden of child care in school districts that have dropped to four-day school weeks falls disproportionately on women, she said. Nearly a third of the school districts in the state operate on a shortened schedule for the cost savings and to help retain and recruit teachers.

Breitbarth isn't sure how much longer she can keep working at Amazon since the company has capped her hourly wages. Her pay hasn't kept up with the inflationary increases in the cost of living.

It's not possible for her to increase her wages unless she becomes a manager. But without any backup child care or flexibility in her schedule, she doesn't know how she will manage if one of her children gets sick or has a day off from school. Given the two hours she spends commuting daily, plus the long hours she works, she hardly gets to see her children much as it is.

She is working on efforts to unionize workers like herself at Amazon.

"We are coming together as a team in hopes that things will get better," she said.

It may be difficult to get Bezos to pay much attention to the trials of single mothers working at the company he founded. He's been busy touring Europe with his new fiancee on a 417-foot super-yacht.