What’s it like to live on less than $2 a day? • Hacker News Board

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

#81

Post by hansjorg » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 7:30 AM UTC

jngreenlee wrote: post #21

peteretep wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this number is marginally misleading, because a huge amount of that is China: > According to the World Bank, more than 850 million people have lifted themselves out of extreme poverty as China's poverty rate fell from 88 percent in 1981 to 0.7 percent in 2015 China was not historically poor, and this is a reversion to the mean once minimal free trade was allowed.

It's still a true story...nothing diminishes the significance of this.

The "lifted out of poverty" meme is most often brought up to validate various forms of western imperialism.

If most of the lifting has been done by China, which did not yield (did not relinquish control over natural resources, etc.), then that's bunk.

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

#82

Post by rypskar » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 7:35 AM UTC

AdrianB1 wrote: post #79

This is completely misleading, close to lying. I lived with less than $2 a day. The average salary in the country was less than $100 and this was in Eastern Europe, not in Africa. What changes the story completely is that the exchange rate makes all the difference in my case: we all had a fairly regular life, but the exchange rate was showing a very dark picture. Yes, we were not able to buy American cars in dollars,…

The poverty rate of $2 a day isn't about living off $2 converted to the local currency, if is about living off the local currency with a value of what $2 is worth in USA. You can compare it to live off what half a cup of coffee costs at Starbucks.

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

#83

Post by tobr » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 7:37 AM UTC

inamberclad wrote: post #46

I'm kinda put off by the production of these videos. It feels like some artsy vlog or artisan type video, but instead it's highres slowmo shots of someone's sheet metal hut and the sunlight coming through smoke and dirt while they slog through another day with nearly nothing to show for it. I feel like the videographers missed the point by trying to make it pretty.

Maybe not surprising when you go to the world’s 2nd richest person, a person whose net worth keeps increasing by billions per year, to learn what it’s like to live on nothing.

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

#84

Post by smallgovt » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 7:40 AM UTC

aspaceman wrote: post #65

smallgovt wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I don't care if things are better than ancient times. The world population living in poverty has decreased from >1.7 billion to 700 million over the past 25 years. So, it's not a comparison to ancient times. We've made considerable progress in just the past couple decades. There's still a lot of work to be done, and we should celebrate the progress made at the same time.

Why does a decrease in world poverty matter in a thread about living on $2 a day? I really don’t care about your stats, make your own post if you wanna talk about them. My point is that folks like you redirect the topic because you’re uncomfortable with reality. I don’t think we’re anywhere close to “celebrating”

>> Why does a decrease in world poverty matter in a thread about living on $2 a day?

Because the definition of poverty is $1.9/day or less. Did you read the article?

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

#85

Post by input_sh » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 7:40 AM UTC

AdrianB1 wrote: post #79

This is completely misleading, close to lying. I lived with less than $2 a day. The average salary in the country was less than $100 and this was in Eastern Europe, not in Africa. What changes the story completely is that the exchange rate makes all the difference in my case: we all had a fairly regular life, but the exchange rate was showing a very dark picture. Yes, we were not able to buy American cars in dollars,…

> This is completely misleading, close to lying.

Philanthropy in a nutshell.

On a more serious note, I couldn't agree more. Any sort of international metric for poverty (like the $2 here) is downright useless because it ignores all the local context.

> I hope you will be touched by their stories, their challenges, and their dreams for better lives. I also hope that you’ll ask yourself what you can do to help the millions of people like them.

You could ask people in the US living below the poverty line and reach this same conclusion. Hell, you could give away 50 bucks directly to a person living in a country with a crappy economy and literally change their life, instead of filming them with thousands of dollars worth cameras to "inspire" people in the west. That's why I prefer GiveDirectly.org over any other charity that attempts to fight poverty.

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

#86

Post by AdrianB1 » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 7:45 AM UTC

rypskar wrote: post #82

AdrianB1 wrote: post #79

This is completely misleading, close to lying. I lived with less than $2 a day. The average salary in the country was less than $100 and this was in Eastern Europe, not in Africa. What changes the story completely is that the exchange rate makes all the difference in my case: we all had a fairly regular life, but the exchange rate was showing a very dark picture. Yes, we were not able to buy American cars in dollars,…

The poverty rate of $2 a day isn't about living off $2 converted to the local currency, if is about living off the local currency with a value of what $2 is worth in USA. You can compare it to live off what half a cup of coffee costs at Starbucks.

Not true. The article is not about living with the equivalent of $2 in USA, but a few African countries and values converted in dollars. A few years ago some colleagues of mine spent a month in rural, mainland China, trying to see how people live with a few dollars a day. While those people were poor, the numbers are very misleading when you convert in dollars.

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

#87

Post by lunchbar123 » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 7:45 AM UTC

AdrianB1 wrote: post #79

This is completely misleading, close to lying. I lived with less than $2 a day. The average salary in the country was less than $100 and this was in Eastern Europe, not in Africa. What changes the story completely is that the exchange rate makes all the difference in my case: we all had a fairly regular life, but the exchange rate was showing a very dark picture. Yes, we were not able to buy American cars in dollars,…

Since i live here, I can tell you people living on this salary in Africa are not living a 'regular' life. They live in shacks and they eat a malnourished diet, they sometimes tap electricity illegally (and dangerously), they do not have money for clothing or any sort of improvement. On top of that they have to deal with things like heightened crime in their areas or the fact that a bit of bad weather can destroy their houses.

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

#88

Post by AdrianB1 » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 7:48 AM UTC

lunchbar123 wrote: post #87

AdrianB1 wrote: post #79

This is completely misleading, close to lying. I lived with less than $2 a day. The average salary in the country was less than $100 and this was in Eastern Europe, not in Africa. What changes the story completely is that the exchange rate makes all the difference in my case: we all had a fairly regular life, but the exchange rate was showing a very dark picture. Yes, we were not able to buy American cars in dollars,…

Since i live here, I can tell you people living on this salary in Africa are not living a 'regular' life. They live in shacks and they eat a malnourished diet, they sometimes tap electricity illegally (and dangerously), they do not have money for clothing or any sort of improvement. On top of that they have to deal with things like heightened crime in their areas or the fact that a bit of bad weather can destroy thei…

Completely agree with you, I did not say anything different. I just said the currency conversion can make a huge difference. With $2 a day you starve to death in USA, a burger costs more than that.

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

#89

Post by Eyght » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 7:52 AM UTC

dluan wrote: post #75

I did this in college for a week as part of a $2 dollar a day challenge for a student microfinance club. I knew well enough that it was near impossible to do it accurately in the U.S. where costs are inflated for basic things, and I also was discounting things like my tiny rent and what not, but I wanted to just go through it once as an exercise. I had $14 and I used most of it to stock up on dry beans. I think I end…

For about a year I lived off ~$16/week(not including rent) here in Sweden (which is not known as a cheap country to live in). I could just about get by and put away some meager savings. But those savings were continuosly lost to random unforeseen expenses in the $20 range.

In my opinion it's not possible to live like that for any longer stretch of time. As soon as an emergency presents itself, you're wiped out and end up destitute. I had the luck of being young and mentally and physically healthy, and I only had to provide for myself. That being said, it wasn't an easy time for me. 1/10 would not recommend.

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

#90

Post by hos234 » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 7:52 AM UTC

inamberclad wrote: post #46

I'm kinda put off by the production of these videos. It feels like some artsy vlog or artisan type video, but instead it's highres slowmo shots of someone's sheet metal hut and the sunlight coming through smoke and dirt while they slog through another day with nearly nothing to show for it. I feel like the videographers missed the point by trying to make it pretty.

They do.

Its a robotic form of expression you see everywhere these days. People are trained how to do one thing well for one context. They take that blindly and apply it to everything they see whether it fits or not. They do it blindly because thats what all the other "educated" folk are doing.

Jaron Larnier has a nice term for it - digital maoism.

You see it in how Journalists and news orgs behave when you visit poorer countries. They are all trying to be CNN in fancy suits and surrounded by flashy graphics covering a cancer ward with no electricity. You see it in the Entrepreneurs and Engineers who want to emulate Apple or Google, more worried about the smoothness of GUI and the typography and icons than thinking about why an uneducated poor person needs it.

While this cognitive dissonant prettification style is all pervasive, whats really interesting is not everyone falls for it. Somehow nature has ensured populations will always have people who go the other way. And thank god for them.