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How poverty changes your mindset

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Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#551

Post by brokenmachine »

BuckRogers wrote: post #539
brokenmachine wrote: post #528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with all you said - I could have written it myself. But I do suspect that, like myself, you are well-educated and probably from a stable home with parents that were good role models. Someone whose home life was chaos probably wasn't lucky enough to been demonstrated those life skills. It's sad, but I don't want to pay for people making totally avoidable bad decisions. I don't know the solution but whatever we…

Yes and no on my background. My immediate family can only be defined as white trash, which from a parental point of view I'd define as- simply do not care what happens to their kids. It was an oppressive patriarchy for sure, my dad was concerned with himself and not my mom or his kids. He came first, and that was the end of it. Very ignored, and tormented daily in my house physically and verbally by a sibling. Even f…

I did read it all. Your background sounds far less privileged than mine. Good on you for overcoming that by choosing to make sensible decisions.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#552

Post by brokenmachine »

pm90 wrote: post #525
brokenmachine wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wouldn't drop money on a spanking new car even though I can afford to and all my peers drive Audis or whatever, but I feel just OK with my over 100k Civic just because I like not having a loan on my head. Needing a loan ≠ can afford to. Many people do not understand this simple fact.

Really... so you wouldn't take out a mortgage to buy your house?

I haven't, but would consider it. But I wasn't talking about a house.

You need a place to live. A fancy car as opposed to one you can buy outright? Not so much.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#553

Post by brokenmachine »

grzm wrote: post #534
brokenmachine wrote: post #531

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not American FWIW, but please explain what you mean?

It's really not important to reinforce whatever stereotype your parent is implying.

In your opinion.

Open discussion will not necessarily reinforce anything, people have the ability to draw their own conclusions. Personally I would rather that OP stated their opinion explicitly.

Also I actually don't know what the stereotype was that was being implied.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#554

Post by brokenmachine »

vageli wrote: post #545
OkGoDoIt wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not entirely sure, maybe I will do that someday, but I’m certainly not comfortable with the idea. And I find it interesting how normal that is and how people don’t seem to think it’s a big deal.

I can afford to buy a car outright, but why would I? Most new cars have terms of zero interest for several years. If I can invest my money elsewhere while taking advantage of a zero-percent loan, why wouldn't I?

Because even leasing a new car at zero interest will end up more expensive than buying an older car outright.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#555

Post by throwaway76025 »

throwaway76025 wrote: post #187

Homeless for nine months and about to be officially destitute tomorrow. At least I’ve had a vehicle to have shelter and live in a warm area. Combo of Homelessness and poverty is a cycle that is quite difficult to get out of. I took on programming work from nice folks while still homeless, which absolutely backfired. Lack of a normal safe routine and attempting to work from public when under such stress can be an effo…

Bye bye!!!!!

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#556

Post by kome »

brokenmachine wrote: post #553
grzm wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really not important to reinforce whatever stereotype your parent is implying.

In your opinion. Open discussion will not necessarily reinforce anything, people have the ability to draw their own conclusions. Personally I would rather that OP stated their opinion explicitly. Also I actually don't know what the stereotype was that was being implied.

Thank you for asking more explanations so nicely, and sorry for being so cryptic.

I think that welfare in the US is about philanthropy, charity and "good will", and not about "social rights" as in Europe.

And that comment showed exactly that attitude: the guy is kinda confused on why that woman refuses his "good will". She is asking for rights, he is offering "good will".

In my opinion, her answer created a cognitive dissonance in his mind, and that's why he answers back so angrily. I find that attitude to social welfare super American.

I think that the American approach to welfare has ethical and practical limits. Welfare based on philanthropy and good will is not an efficient welfare: it won’t change much. It also adds a moral dimension that (imho) shouldn't be there…

Sorry for the late answer!

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#557

Post by brokenmachine »

kome wrote: post #556
brokenmachine wrote: post #553

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In your opinion. Open discussion will not necessarily reinforce anything, people have the ability to draw their own conclusions. Personally I would rather that OP stated their opinion explicitly. Also I actually don't know what the stereotype was that was being implied.

Thank you for asking more explanations so nicely, and sorry for being so cryptic. I think that welfare in the US is about philanthropy, charity and "good will", and not about "social rights" as in Europe. And that comment showed exactly that attitude: the guy is kinda confused on why that woman refuses his "good will". She is asking for rights, he is offering "good will". In my opinion, her answer created a cognitive…

Nice explanation. Thanks.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#558

Post by ashelmire »

losteric wrote: post #522
ashelmire wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Few, study and get news jobs, maybe, maybe. There are always more jobs and opportunity for growth (even in a bad economy). The companies will evolve or die as they always have if their customer base disappears.

I guess my questions boil down to this: Human cognitive abilities follow a normal distribution. Some low-skilled laborers never had an opportunity to reach their potential, others lack the capacity to perform higher skill jobs... and some people are incapable of even "low-skill" labor. Is automation maintaining or reducing the number of jobs for less capable people? Are we slowly raising the unemployable-threshold?

Those are good questions. Our challenge becomes ensuring that people are capable. How many of those displaced workers are less capable because of something intrinsic (some mental defect or insufficiency), and how many just need to be trained? I'm not sure if we'll ever reach a point where the "average" person is unemployable, but we can imagine a future where that is the case. But there's such little genetic variation within humanity that it seems likely that our education system could be made much more rigorous and suitable to ensure that everyone comes out of it at a very high level of capability.

Re: How poverty changes your mindset

#559

Post by jjeaff »

maksimum wrote: post #523
jjeaff wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hilarious that you use the word "efficient" and then in the next sentence make the claim that the US military has done a great job at keeping the country safe. Yes, they do a good job. But the US military is one of the most bloated, over-funded organizations in human history.

I'd like to stretch some ideas for the sake of exploration. Curious to hear what you think: I think you could interpret the US military's success despite "waste" to mean that a federal government can get away with a lot of inefficiency and still beat the "free market." History already showed us what private military is like. I believe it's essentially feudalism and warlords. I.e. true poverty for 90% of the populatio…

It's not really success despite waste. It's one of the principal factor's bankrupting the nation. Apply that to other major issues as you listed and we are bankrupt even faster.
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