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How poverty changes your mindset

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Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#51

Post by zouhair »

tamrix wrote: post #49
redm wrote: post #15

I'm sure how people deal with stress and difficult situations varies from person to person. My personal story and 2-cents: When I was 17 I went through a period of near destitute. I was living on my own, my father had passed away, and I had dropped out of school. Yet, I found myself with some very good jobs, such as GE Capital, a big Oil and Gas companies IT department, etc. Regardless of the opportunity, my arroganc…

I think comments like these are more likely propaganda than real experiences. They keep feeding you the lie that you're going to be successful if you keep believing in the system. When we all know statistically America is worse than ever before. You read the parent comment and think the poor and just lazy and all your have to do is work yourself a slave and suck corporate dick. But it's never a top comment adding tha…

This is why I hate the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness"[0] with a passion. Really hate it.

[0]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454921/

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#52

Post by Waterluvian »

redm wrote: post #15

I'm sure how people deal with stress and difficult situations varies from person to person. My personal story and 2-cents: When I was 17 I went through a period of near destitute. I was living on my own, my father had passed away, and I had dropped out of school. Yet, I found myself with some very good jobs, such as GE Capital, a big Oil and Gas companies IT department, etc. Regardless of the opportunity, my arroganc…

I have a safety net and it has enabled me to take risks I never would have if failure meant homelessness for my family.

I think that's why all the trimmings of a "socialist" society are so attractive to me.

I hear what you're saying. You felt motivated because there was nothing to enable your coasting. But it can also work in the other direction.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#53

Post by haberman »

bojackstorkman wrote: post #43
haberman wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does non-poor people commenting prevent poor people from commenting? The author of the original article is probably not currently poor, and yet she is writing about it. Do you see this as a problem too?

Sorry if I gave that impression. I have no problem with lots of perspectives. I specifically asked if anybody had made room for, uh, the poor people. Considering my response has already gotten one "Well you're obviously not poor if you read this", and another asking for clarification of my opinions on non-poor people, I guess this wasn't the place to make that point. Sorry.

> I specifically asked if anybody had made room for, uh, the poor people.

But what does this mean? Unless someone is specifically arguing that poor people should not comment, how is anyone not "making room for" the perspectives of poor people?

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#54

Post by mc32 »

charlesdm wrote: post #26
RSZC wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're misunderstanding the question they've posed people. In either situation, the question is "is half an hour of transit worth $50 to you." Whether it's $50 saved on a $300 item or a $1000 item has no impact on the $ saved per minute.

Most people think about a dollar as a dollar. They don't realise it's not worth focusing on saving a dollar here and there, if they then move ahead and overpay for a house or a car (e.g. by not negotiating). Half the battle is getting a good (or great) deal on expensive, one off purchases, if possible (say everything above $2k). Don't worry about the rest. As with everything: 20% of the "work" gets you 80% of the way…

It really depends. There was a time when what i could have spent on Starbucks was equivalent to at least one main meal, so splurging on a drink like that was a luxury of sorts for when i had extra funds-- this was at tertiary school and got by with a PT job.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#55

Post by zouhair »

bojackstorkman wrote: post #30

I love how when this comes up, it's people either saying "Here was my experience when I was poor in the past." or "Here is what I think about economics or the wording of this article." Don't get me wrong, I know what website I'm on. But in all seriousness, is there room for currently poor people in this discussion?

In most societies being poor is shameful, asking for help is twice as shameful. Even if someone that is poor and read your comment will most likely post an answer.

When poor people get things for "free" (like charity, I hate charity) they actually pay with pride and dignity.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#56

Post by keenerd »

tylerhou wrote: post #29
rdiddly wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but there's a subtlety: The dollars saved in those minutes are worth a different amount to a rich person depending on their relative impact on the sale. $50 off of $300 is a 1/6 discount, so a "good deal" that they will (somewhat recreationally) decide to go and get. But they still don't inherently care that much about $50. You could say if they make lets say ten times what I do, they probably care 1/10th as m…

The rational answer is that if you would drive 30 minutes to save $50 off a $300 tablet, then you should also drive 30 minutes to save $50 off a $1000 tablet. You've described the psychology of why a wealthy person might not drive the 30 minutes for the $1000 tablet well (but still will spend the time to save money on the $300 tablet), but that choice is still irrational.

It can still be rational, but you need to look at shopping as an aggregate of probabilities.

Let's make it more extreme. A $50 item for free or $50 off a $5000 purchase. Discounts as big as 100% off don't come every day. Maybe you'll never see that deal again in your life. You should jump on it. Where as a 1% discount is something you see every day at dozens of stores. There will probably be a bigger discount next week, so don't bother going out of your way.

If you have to make a choice between the two, you choose the item with the less-common discount.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#57

Post by autokad »

charlesdm wrote: post #26
RSZC wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're misunderstanding the question they've posed people. In either situation, the question is "is half an hour of transit worth $50 to you." Whether it's $50 saved on a $300 item or a $1000 item has no impact on the $ saved per minute.

Most people think about a dollar as a dollar. They don't realise it's not worth focusing on saving a dollar here and there, if they then move ahead and overpay for a house or a car (e.g. by not negotiating). Half the battle is getting a good (or great) deal on expensive, one off purchases, if possible (say everything above $2k). Don't worry about the rest. As with everything: 20% of the "work" gets you 80% of the way…

> "Yes, Starbucks is expensive, but you're not going to go bankrupt drinking their coffee."

I observed people spending 5$ both morning and lunch/day, but for arguments sake stick to 1/day. thats roughly 1300$/year. now imagine living paycheck to paycheck and spending that (very common). they end up taking on dept @20% interest.

in a 5 year window, just that spending on starbucks is effectively costing them nearly 10,000$.

edit: keep in mind, i heard the average 401k savings is ~5k

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#58

Post by gowld »

RSZC wrote: post #9
scandox wrote: post #2

> That’s the correct financial decision, according to traditional economics—to drive the extra distance no matter the original cost. Saving $50 is the same regardless of the amount of the item in question. But wealthier participants saw the savings in relative terms, noticing the percentage savings. By contrast, poorer participants thought in absolute terms. To them, $50 saved was $50 to spend on groceries or the ele…

You're misunderstanding the question they've posed people. In either situation, the question is "is half an hour of transit worth $50 to you." Whether it's $50 saved on a $300 item or a $1000 item has no impact on the $ saved per minute.

When behavioral economists do these studies and brag about counterintuitive results, they usually ignore that more expensive items usually have a longer lifespan, so the cost per unit time isn't as different as the sticker price suggests.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#59

Post by cgmg »

tamrix wrote: post #49
redm wrote: post #15

I'm sure how people deal with stress and difficult situations varies from person to person. My personal story and 2-cents: When I was 17 I went through a period of near destitute. I was living on my own, my father had passed away, and I had dropped out of school. Yet, I found myself with some very good jobs, such as GE Capital, a big Oil and Gas companies IT department, etc. Regardless of the opportunity, my arroganc…

I think comments like these are more likely propaganda than real experiences. They keep feeding you the lie that you're going to be successful if you keep believing in the system. When we all know statistically America is worse than ever before. You read the parent comment and think the poor and just lazy and all your have to do is work yourself a slave and suck corporate dick. But it's never a top comment adding tha…

> I think comments like these are more likely propaganda than real experiences.

So you are calling redm a liar. Do you have anything to back up that accusation? Or are you calling them a liar purely because it suits your poorly-constructed narrative?

> When we all know statistically America is worse than ever before.

"We all know..." is false. What you mean is probably more along the lines of "This is what I think, without having done any research to support my wild claim."

> You read the parent comment and think the poor and just lazy

Where did the GP call the poor lazy?

> and all your have to do is work yourself a slave and suck corporate dick.

See above.

> Nope, it's always the corporate stooge.

Why are you accusing redm of being a 'corporate stooge'?

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#60

Post by eanzenberg »

tamrix wrote: post #49
redm wrote: post #15

I'm sure how people deal with stress and difficult situations varies from person to person. My personal story and 2-cents: When I was 17 I went through a period of near destitute. I was living on my own, my father had passed away, and I had dropped out of school. Yet, I found myself with some very good jobs, such as GE Capital, a big Oil and Gas companies IT department, etc. Regardless of the opportunity, my arroganc…

I think comments like these are more likely propaganda than real experiences. They keep feeding you the lie that you're going to be successful if you keep believing in the system. When we all know statistically America is worse than ever before. You read the parent comment and think the poor and just lazy and all your have to do is work yourself a slave and suck corporate dick. But it's never a top comment adding tha…

How is America statistically worse than before? Compared to when?
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