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How poverty changes your mindset

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Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#101

Post by sjg007 »

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…

A house has to appraise at the sales price or else you can't get a mortgage. You can, technically, "over pay" but that would be from savings which most people don't have. Also most first time buyers don't put 20% down so it's even harder to overpay. As for cars you should buy a new car at a low interest rate and hold it or buy a decent used car. You have to figure out the math here b/c after cash for clunkers used cars cost more... then again you can sell your new car for more later as well.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#102

Post by [deleted] »

kraig911 wrote: post #98
Jedd wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I hate seeing people's comments on stories around this topic. Could you explain why that is?

> Could you explain why that is? Easy by the rest of my comment maybe I didn't illustrate it enough but a lot of people share ideas on how to fix it without truly understand it. Poverty is easy to fix. It's the giving up personal wealth to prevent it that's the hard part. As per the link it basically says the same crap everyone says, the "Helping the homeless is hopeless" narrative. Now saying that once you're screwe…

[deleted]

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#103

Post by Buge »

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…

>Most people think about a dollar as a dollar.

They're correct. You should spend the same amount of time to save a dollar on A as you do to save a dollar on B. And you should spend 100x as much time to save $100.

If you're willing to spend 10 minutes to save $100, then you are only willing to spend 6 seconds to save $1. If you can't immediately identify a way to save $1 that would take less than 6 seconds, then don't try to save $1. Each person has a different time/dollar ratio. Some people might be willing to spend 2 minute to save $1, and thus willing to spend 1 hour to save $30.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#104

Post by sjg007 »

autokad wrote: post #57
charlesdm wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

Starbucks could offer a 401k that comes with a free daily cup of coffee.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#105

Post by braderhart »

autokad wrote: post #48
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 grew up poor, and it was frustrating to see the stupid mistakes my family and people around me would make over, and over, and over. then people like the researchers in this article say infuriating things like 'their bad decisions are just because they are cognitively tired, and actually many of them could be even considered shrewd!" being cognitively tired does play a role, but more so because they are cognitively…

I resonate the feeling and agree that people need to also take responsibility, however I see people all the time making poor choices, and it isn't just poor people. If you're down on your luck, that $6 coffee ritual may be not sound so bad at the moment. Someone who is exhausted, and probably malnourished (surprisingly common in America), will say to themselves... I'm craving a delicious coffee and hopefully it'll give me enough energy to keep going, and sometimes it does work temporarily.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#106

Post by Jedd »

kraig911 wrote: post #98
Jedd wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I hate seeing people's comments on stories around this topic. Could you explain why that is?

> Could you explain why that is? Easy by the rest of my comment maybe I didn't illustrate it enough but a lot of people share ideas on how to fix it without truly understand it. Poverty is easy to fix. It's the giving up personal wealth to prevent it that's the hard part. As per the link it basically says the same crap everyone says, the "Helping the homeless is hopeless" narrative. Now saying that once you're screwe…

> As per the link it basically says the same crap everyone says, the "Helping the homeless is hopeless" narrative.

Is that really how you interpreted TFA?

I read it entirely opposite to that interpretation. It explained why helping those suffering scarcity is necessary and why society needs to revisit attitudes and mechanisms to do so.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#107

Post by tensor_rank_0 »

kraig911 wrote: post #98
Jedd wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I hate seeing people's comments on stories around this topic. Could you explain why that is?

> Could you explain why that is? Easy by the rest of my comment maybe I didn't illustrate it enough but a lot of people share ideas on how to fix it without truly understand it. Poverty is easy to fix. It's the giving up personal wealth to prevent it that's the hard part. As per the link it basically says the same crap everyone says, the "Helping the homeless is hopeless" narrative. Now saying that once you're screwe…

> Poverty is easy to fix. It's the giving up personal wealth to prevent it that's the hard part.

how does giving up personal wealth fix poverty?

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#108

Post by scarface74 »

mirimir wrote: post #47
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.

I freelance, so I consider 30 min travel vs $50 saving differently, depending on how much work I have, when it ought to be done by, and what I'm billing at. If I were billing at less than $100/hr, and had enough slack, I'd of course make the trip. But if I were behind schedule on a $75/hr job, I'd probably pay the extra $50. But damn, people working 15 hours per day at minimum wage might also pay the $50, if they can…

It's not just about the $50 vs. time spent. If after the calculation you decided it was worth $50 to spend that extra 30 minute drive, it shouldn't matter if you're saving $50 on a $100 item or you are saving $50 on a $1000 item.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#109

Post by refurb »

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…

Really? I know lots of people that work hard and are doing pretty good. Not rich, but doing ok.

I also know people who are doing poorly and a good deal of them (not all!) are that way through poor choices (and would admit it).

Of course I also know people who are doing poorly through no fault of their (poor health, caretaker burden, etc). For those folks I'm glad we social programs to help them.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#110

Post by Buge »

gowld wrote: post #58
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.

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.

I think you're misunderstanding. The question had nothing to do with whether the more expensive tablet is better or not, or which one someone would rather buy.
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