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How poverty changes your mindset

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Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#411

Post by pjonesdotca »

kome wrote: post #358
movedx wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

that's so American in so many ways...

exactly what I thought

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#412

Post by tjr225 »

gota wrote: post #337
tjr225 wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of us disagree very strongly with the premise of capitalism.

The true premise of capitalism is that a person can own the rights to the exploration of natural resources, most commonly land. Everything else is compounded abstraction. I used to think it was more 'artificial' than it really is; but in fact it seems "natural" that people who lived for a long while in a piece of land deserve the right to keep it; and it also seems "natural" that through force you can take and keep l…

Agreed. I would like to see more people approach Marxism as a critique of capitalism and move forward trying to improve it(capitalism). Unfortunately, there's still a lot of stigma(in the US).

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#413

Post by kpennell »

IkmoIkmo wrote: post #316

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…

thanks for sharing your story. the state is great

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#414

Post by [deleted] »

kraig911 wrote: post #387
zrb05293 wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#415

Post by Simon_says »

emodendroket wrote: post #408
Simon_says wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

Our economic system is predicated on people having children.

I'm not against people having kids.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#416

Post by sifoo »

I've gone back and forth between having a lot of money and not having any money at all several times by now. It's getting to the point where I don't want any money as long as basic needs are covered. Money is a seriously addictive and destructive drug; and like all such addictions, it's impossible to get a perspective from the inside; you don't see what it's doing to you until you're out. And the fact that it's everywhere makes quitting really tricky.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#417

Post by dfgdsfgsd »

baby wrote: post #314
psyc wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in poverty in the US as well, and I agree there’s a heartless tendency for people not to acknowledge it’s real. The tired comment I see most frequently is something like “nobody in the US is poor because everyone has plumbing, refrigerators, and TVs.” First, no, everyone does not. Many people are homeless. Second, it’s very narrow to focus on objective material factors, because that discounts the toll of th…

The most shocking place I've visited in my life was San Francisco. Super rich people surrounded by armies of homeless people.

I spent three months in S. Barbara. I hated it for this reason. All I could see were the homeless, ignored. Once, a homeless person's wheelchair tripped on a curb and he fell off into the street. People literally walked over him until I picked him up and back into his chair.

I'd lived in Atlanta for several years before but the attitude of the well do to the poor was obscene.

When I left, I vowed I would never live in coastal California again.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#418

Post by analyst74 »

fastball wrote: post #330
analyst74 wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American poverty sounds so different from Chinese poverty. I grew up during the tail years of communism and everybody was dirt poor. The interesting thing is, nobody was financially stressed, starvation and homelessness was not a thing. I ended up developing an abundance mentality and terrible money management skills. Looking even further back, my parents experienced the height of policy stupidity and barely survived…

"Chinese poverty is different from American poverty because we weren't worried about starving." Mentions a mass starvation event in China only a generation before which probably killed the equivalent of 10% of the US population at the time. You might want to think about that a bit more.

I specifically mentioned the famine, to bring up the contrast between the worst possible kind of poverty and how it affected people like my parents.

Of course, I only see residue effects long after it happened, so maybe time does heal all wounds.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#419

Post by kudokatz »

etoir wrote: post #363
baby wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The GP said that he has severe emotional problems, related to childhood trauma around spending money and also broke down when buying the bed. 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 respon…

I can relate to both mindsets. I stay more frugal despite not needing to, so $700 is a lot to me. But the vitriol of saying "thou shall" is what I dislike. The psychological trauma of fearing the spending of any money is real ... but I'd rather have a dose of it rather than none at all.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#420

Post by Simon_says »

pjc50 wrote: post #398
Simon_says wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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? Are you proposing that only the top 10% most economically secure people should have children? Because if you check those critera you'll find it's a surprisingly small minority of people that meet all of them. (Something like ha…

Not in those terms. But I believe that list is achievable by the overwhelming majority of Americans if they were to make better decisions. The ones who can't afford to save a 6 month e-fund when they're childless are living precariously as it is and sure can't afford the disruption to their budget a kid would entail.

I feel like I'm talking into the wind here. I guess I hold unpopular opinions around here. Is personal responsibility so unpopular? Or do people not believe that decisions we make affect our lives?

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