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How poverty changes your mindset

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Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#381

Post by ComputerGuru »

baby wrote: post #311
dizzystar wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That’s your takeaway from the story (s)he shared?

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#383

Post by tboyd47 »

Very interesting findings. The study seems to indicate that poverty is correlated with better economic decisions, unless the option to borrow is present, in which case, poverty correlates with poorer decisions.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#384

Post by refurb »

jopsen wrote: post #306
goatlover wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As opposed to giving it to defense contractors or farm subsidies. It's funny how conservatives only focus on tax dollars going to the poor.

Similarly, I find it "funny" (tragicomical) when poor Americans lists expenses and then complain about how much income tax they pay. To be fair, the poor have a high tax burden in the US compared to other industrialized countries. And they get fairly little for their taxes... Still an Uber driver who complains about taxes being high is sad, because lower taxes will only hurt him.

Not sure that's true. If you're low income enough you don't pay taxes and actually get money back through the EITC.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#385

Post by noselasd »

fastball wrote: post #372
bildung wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Famines were sadly very common in China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famines_in_China People often comment on the 1958 famine as some singular event, but it actually was the 6th and last in the 20th century.

I can't tell if you're agreeing with me? Because yes, I'm aware of that. That is why I am so confused by OP seeming to say "in China we don't have to worry about starvation even when we're poor". It's just so far from true I don't understand why they are getting upvoted (and me downvoted).

Probably the commenter was born after 1962.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#386

Post by Simon_says »

pjc50 wrote: post #297
Simon_says wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think, but I'm not sure, that at her income level, the Earned Income Tax Credit will let her get a net refund from the federal government? And Texas doesn't tax income. Savings have to come from the biggest choices in your life. You've already assumed a bunch of poor choices in your model of this hypothetical person. You didn't mention your city, but I found $400-500 2 bedroom apartments on a quick Craigslist searc…

> don't choose to have kids when you're making $9/hour or have a chaotic domestic life Often the choice to have kids is at a more stable point and then things go downhill.

Of course everyone is going to focus on that sentence when I also mentioned many other poor choices this hypothetical woman is making.

Tragedies will occasionally come out of left field, so I believe you can find real hard luck cases where everything was sunshine and rainbows when the couple decides to have a kid. But based on the people I've known personally the people with messed up lives are a subset of the people make consistently poor decisions. I bet that 9 single parents who are struggling financially out of 10 have some identifiable poor choice you could find if they were totally open and honest about their history. Does she have a 6 month emergency fund, health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, a large enough home, home insurance, a stable marriage, stable employment, flex in the budget? I think if you restrict to looking at parents who fit those criteria prior to the decision to have kids, the sliver who become this down on their luck is staggeringly tiny. And the parents who don't fit these can't afford kids.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#387

Post by kraig911 »

zrb05293 wrote: post #219
kraig911 wrote: post #69

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…

My childhood was one of extreme poverty. We were never homeless. But my dad worked so much we never saw him. And the toll it took on him was such that my brother and I were basically terrified of him even into our early adulthood. He was brutal, mean, always angry. Our mother died when I was 10 and he abandoned us with our grandparents. I don’t blame him anymore. He had a breakdown. The world finally destroyed him. B…

Almost the same happened with my father. It's why I think poverty can span generations easily. I am grateful now my mom and dad got a divorce but during that dark time I only saw my dad if either myself or my brother were in trouble or if we happened to be running around the trailer late at night.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#388

Post by Simon_says »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #299
Simon_says wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think, but I'm not sure, that at her income level, the Earned Income Tax Credit will let her get a net refund from the federal government? And Texas doesn't tax income. Savings have to come from the biggest choices in your life. You've already assumed a bunch of poor choices in your model of this hypothetical person. You didn't mention your city, but I found $400-500 2 bedroom apartments on a quick Craigslist searc…

Maybe don't choose to have kids when you're making $9/hour or have a chaotic domestic life? Most children aren't actually planned. They occur because mother nature has spent millions of years perfecting the art of tricking people into liking sex. Or, as I sometimes say, our genes are like virii: They don't care how miserable they make you in their quest to reproduce themselves. Coincidentally, genes and viruses are b…

Oh, I'm totally with you on the root causes. I'm just resentful that I pay more in taxes to support kids when the parents don't care enough to ensure they have a stable life prior to bringing them into the world.

And while I agree with you that evolution is powerful, reliable birth control is recent enough that we haven't adapted to it. It's quite possible to control when you have kids via abstinence, birth control, and abortion. But it does require long-term thinking and contentiousness, and my point is that these sob stories are mostly missing these personality traits.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#389

Post by fencepost »

fastball wrote: post #372
bildung wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Famines were sadly very common in China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famines_in_China People often comment on the 1958 famine as some singular event, but it actually was the 6th and last in the 20th century.

I can't tell if you're agreeing with me? Because yes, I'm aware of that. That is why I am so confused by OP seeming to say "in China we don't have to worry about starvation even when we're poor". It's just so far from true I don't understand why they are getting upvoted (and me downvoted).

My take would be that they weren't starving because they were poor, they were starving because there was no food to be had. Starvation in a famine is different from starvation in a land of plenty where you simply can't afford food.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#390

Post by lighttower »

movedx wrote: post #349
DoreenMichele wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the kind of comment I really hate seeing. It is almost always virtue signaling. People genuinely looking to help have zero problem finding my PayPal account or emailing me. The people who publicly offer assistance usually wind up really pissed off at me if I rudely try to take them up on it. It is gauche of me to take them seriously. They were just trying to look good in public for free. I am supposed to have…

> I find the entire thing annoying in the extreme because I have a Patreon account to help fund my blogging and I completely suck at promoting that. > I sincerely appreciate it anytime anyone actually kicks a few bucks my way when I am in crisis. But I would much prefer that people take me seriously, fund my Patreon and/or hire me for paid writing so that bitching about my shit life on the internet can stop being one…

You're angry already. Can you explain what's fueling your indignation?
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