361–370 of 559 posts
Wanna change your mindset? Ill keep it simple to save us all time to START reading. Read these 3 books, even if its just one chapter of each book in any order, but READ them! They will change your mind more than any money ever can. ·THINK AND GROW RICH - Napoleon Hill · GRIT - Angela Duckworth · THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE - Rick Warren
I hate seeing people's comments on stories around this topic. I grew up in poverty and food stamps from time to time. My dad was a roughneck and when the oil bust happened in the 80's there was a time we lived out of our car -- my whole family. here was literally nothing to do in the oil patch during that bust. There was literally no work. But people don't understand true hopelessness. My dad did everything he could…
Thank you for sharing your story. I feel so much empathy towards you and your family, and I'm sorry to hear about your father feeling so bitter towards the system afterwards. I don't blame him. When I see people screaming and walking down the streets talking to themselves, I see people that need love. I see people that need to be taken in, not just for a night, but for a year or longer... so they can stop stressing a…
This seems unjustified. Your statement assumes (a) Support systems in the community are run only by religious people. This implies (b) Non-religious people do not run any community programs.
Assuming (b) is true (which it may very well not be), the question that needs to be asked is, why do non-religious people and institutions not run more community programs. Not rail against the religious people who do.
Disclaimer: I am not American.
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I grew up in poverty as well and my reaction to money is the total opposite. I never felt connected to it all. I want to be a good saver, but my understanding of the green stuff is nearly nil. It's just sort of there and I try not to think about it. I think it's just the opposite problem. I simply don't know what to spend money on. I feel like I spend a lot of money, but somehow everyone is in deeper debt than I am.…
Why did you start with such an expensive bed? I've bought 5 beds so far in my life and I've never spent that much. I probably have spent 500$ (mattress+frame+comforter+...) for my last bed and that was the most expensive one I ever bought.
Why are you criticizing his choice of bed? You are showing a lack of empathy to the poster's actual point, which isn't "Help me find a cheap bed". It feels like you're just looking for an opportunity to brag about how good at buying beds you are. Even if you're not, your response doesn't say anything about the article or add to the wider discussion in any way.
>The researchers asked real people of various socioeconomic strata if they were willing to travel an extra 30 minutes to save $50 on a $300 tablet. Some said they were. But when asked if they’d drive that far to save the same amount on a $1,000 tablet, some of the respondents changed their minds. Their answer depended on their income.
I wouldn't even think to ask such a question about buying a $300 (let alone $ 1,000) tablet to someone who clearly cannot afford it (the actual poor people).
I mean, when you are dealing with someone who is homeless or that is on foodstamps (or similar assistance for the very basic needs) are you really going to ask them about the $50 savings on a completely voluptuary item such as a tablet, particularly a $ 1,000 one?
And the question is about "driving" (implying that the "poor" has a car).
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And to do that, they would need immediate stable income, or enough capital to live on until they found it. Probably both. That is the whole point: no one in this situation has either of these things. That is the group of people Sen. Hatch thinks does not deserve financial help.
After reading through (most of) the comments here, I am genuinely curious what we can do as individuals to help. It is pretty clear that the gov isn't too keen on helping (don't want to get into politics - just one look at the budget cuts is enough to prove this point). So is there anything we can do? Protesting, running for public office etc makes the most sense but I am not built for it. What is the second best thi…
I’ve for long pondered how I could set up a 100 studio apartment complex with some counselors, training materials, and a supportive non profit. It seems doable.
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Not taking risks (doing nothing) will never "work out". Those who do not have the capital cannot take risks in the first place.
Is it not possible to make something "work out" without taking risks? A quote from the olden (perhaps wiser) days, was "don't quit your day job", has this sage advice been lost? Unless we are going to avoid widely classifing a "risk" as something "scary" or "hard", then isn't changing jobs risky?
I'm not going to pretend that some people don't thrive when looking at the poverty void -- they are the exception to the rule. There are also those who coast on gov't funding. There's probably many reasons why someone would coast, but if I'm in a system that has so thoroughly forgotten about me since birth (e.g. not having any opportunities for better education for one), why would I want to partake in it? I think the cost of a few people not trying to make changes for the better is by far outweighed by helping those you need support in their most desperate time.
It's not about giving people a safety net when the have moonshot ideas to start a business. It's to have a safety net when they need a bit of time to improve themselves, which when you have little time and money is a huge risk.
A lot of great stories in this thread, a lot of them are quite disheartening US stories of poverty. Mine was the opposite, really. Grew up as a welfare-kid in Western-Europe with a disabled dad and a sibling. The state provided for us, the three of us made do with about $1200 (roughly the $7.50 minimum wage in the US at a 40h 52w work schedule) or so in today's money, living in the capital city so rent and insurance…
Can I ask you which European state are you talking about?
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> It is not far-fetched for her to spend 2-3 hours to save a $1 on something. That's not a far-fetched thing for a poor person to do. $1 can buy a can of beans and add nutrition to an otherwise hungry day. > Meaning that she needs to evaluate the opportunity cost of saving a dollar versus spending 2-3 hours to save that dollar. Opportunities aren't unlimited, and the closer to poverty one is the shorter their term. S…
Your comment is good. The relevant question is what can I do right now to make money? Maybe Mechanical Turk? (can you make $1 in 2 hours?). The abundance of human potential sitting idle agonizes me.
I think another way to put what I wrote is that opportunity costs are a luxury one can afford once one has saved enough to move on from focusing solely on catastrophic costs like losing food, shelter, electricity, etc.
OP's friend probably started searching for deals because it returned predictable savings and-- most importantly-- carried very little risk. The fact that she's filling lots of idle time with the same behavior is evidence of her poverty as she is probably not able to take on any greater risk for fear of catastrophic failure.
Thus it is suspicious when the OP analyzes only in terms of opportunity costs. It would be more persuasive to convey ideas in terms of catastrophic risk. But that's a more difficult problem to address and an area where the OP-- like most people-- has little expertise.
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One option is considering moving. Regardless of your eng. skills if you are able to discuss requirements and communicate well you would be an asset for any smaller consulting company in eastern europe.
And to do that, they would need immediate stable income, or enough capital to live on until they found it. Probably both. That is the whole point: no one in this situation has either of these things. That is the group of people Sen. Hatch thinks does not deserve financial help.
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Thank you for sharing your story. I feel so much empathy towards you and your family, and I'm sorry to hear about your father feeling so bitter towards the system afterwards. I don't blame him. When I see people screaming and walking down the streets talking to themselves, I see people that need love. I see people that need to be taken in, not just for a night, but for a year or longer... so they can stop stressing a…
> because that is who America has designated as their community support system. This seems unjustified. Your statement assumes (a) Support systems in the community are run only by religious people. This implies (b) Non-religious people do not run any community programs. Assuming (b) is true (which it may very well not be), the question that needs to be asked is, why do non-religious people and institutions not run mo…
This explains it. You probably live somewhere with a reasonable social safety net. Our government safety net is full of holes, and religious people build webs to catch people who fall through.
Not all of them are bad. Some of them will just help people and not make it conditional on joining their religion. In my experience and from accounts by other LGBTQ+ people, these are the outliers.