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What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day?

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Re: What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day?

#31

Post by falcongod082 »

gcc_programmer wrote: post #20
falcongod082 wrote: post #3

[flagged]

Please, could you suggest an alternative to capitalism? How would you implement it? Are you also likening people in extreme poverty to cows? Is that not extremely vile? I would like to have a discussion with you, but I fear I can't really hear you from your moral high ground: could you please come down to my basic level and try to explain? English is also not my first language, so lets keep the phraseology simple.

economic systems aren't binary, I don't need an alternative to criticize a system.

Re: What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day?

#32

Post by rolph »

watersb wrote: post #8
rolph wrote: post #2

it can get even worse. i wonder how many people here have had to live on however many empty beer cans you can collect and cash in in a day.

I haven't had to go that far, but for about six months I had a food budget of less than $2 per day. If I had needed to pay for housing, health care, everything on $2 I am not sure how I would do so.

at that point there is no housing there is "where can i sleep hidden away so as not to be found", and health care is whatever first aid skills you have until you maybe find a clinic.

Re: What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day?

#33

Post by falcongod082 »

falcongod082 wrote: post #27
gcc_programmer wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You did not answer my question but answered your own. What are you talking about?

My apologies, you're correct. I've heard that there exists a field of study called economics in which we know how all of that works, if that's actually true then we know how to cure poverty.

Did you not like that truth?...did you not want to admit that we choose to let poverty continue?

Re: What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day?

#34

Post by rolph »

hanniabu wrote: post #25
watersb wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't had to go that far, but for about six months I had a food budget of less than $2 per day. If I had needed to pay for housing, health care, everything on $2 I am not sure how I would do so.

What did your meals consist of?

wild fruits and small game, garden vegetables from purchased and scavenged seeds, high fat items bought with change.

Re: What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day?

#36

Post by falcongod082 »

jngreenlee wrote: post #17
falcongod082 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it's not nothing...but making the ridiculously poor slightly less poor isn't something I'd call an "amazing achievement" since it's stupid easy to make them not poor.

That's not true at scale. We're not talking share-shifting of dollars, but making a more anti-fragile system overall that lifts everyone.

I agree, but most folks aren't ready for the share-shifting of privilege that that would entail.

Re: What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day?

#37

Post by joe_the_user »

neom wrote: post #16

I've mentioned this book here before, but I can't stress enough how good it is. $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America: https://www.amazon.com/2-00-Day-Living-Nothing-America/dp/05...

"..households surviving on virtually no cash income..."

This is talking about people living on less than $2/day cash income. Which is still quite different from trying to get all needs with $2 cash each day, something that is more or less impossible in the US today. Those without cash live on hand-outs, soup kitchens and government assistance.

Certainly, US poverty has gotten worse over the last twenty years and is a serious problem, of course. But it seems like the focus on $2/day in particular fails to see poverty in any holistic sense.

Counter point from the Guardian on the whole Gates approach: "Bill Gates says poverty is decreasing. He couldn’t be more wrong"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/29/bill-g...

Re: What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day?

#38

Post by aspaceman »

pdonis wrote: post #19
falcongod082 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it's not nothing...but making the ridiculously poor slightly less poor isn't something I'd call an "amazing achievement" since it's stupid easy to make them not poor.

> it's stupid easy to make them not poor Really? How so?

Take money from rich people

Give money to poor people.

Only reason that's hard is rich people wanting to keep their money. Not some grand natural equilibrium.

Re: What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day?

#39

Post by falcongod082 »

aspaceman wrote: post #38
pdonis wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's stupid easy to make them not poor Really? How so?

Take money from rich people Give money to poor people. Only reason that's hard is rich people wanting to keep their money. Not some grand natural equilibrium.

This also works and is pretty much what Murrica did until shortly after WWII.
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