About 20 years ago, I used to say: "People are like dung beetles... fighting over balls of shit." Might've been live, pirated HBO George Carlin-inspired.
How about a nice game of chess?
I wouldn't demonize the very poor as addicts; drunks, sure. A dry hobo is likely to whip your ass and mine at chess. There are a good fraction of sane, teetotaling, drug-free hobos who are merely poor and itinerant without magical bootstraps.