231–240 of 329 posts
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Granted I only have 5 decades of perspective but I have noticed people who get lucky tend to be the ones who dont quit. The ones who quit tend to call those who dont quit lucky.
The ones that die from medical conditions because they can't afford treatment you don't "notice" at all, since they are dead and gone.
Okay these loans certainly sound like a bad deal, but what are people supposed to do? Say your car breaks and you can’t get to work. For all of us here billing out >$100hr or whatever your local consulting rate is, the answer is some calculus around the cost of losing your job vs the cost of fixing it. But for MOST people, the cost of fixing it is functionally infinite. They literally do not have even a few hundred d…
Resources include anything by Dave Ramsey (including possibly used books, DVDs, audio CDs on amazon: we bought some of these for ourselves, and to loan or give to children and others; no other affiliation), or free full BYU personal finance courses online at: https://personalfinance.byu.edu/ (I have not personally reviewed but some relatives have taken the actual classes and recommended this link.)
There are also some free in-person training programs in at least 2-3 cities, with a collaboration between my church and the NAACP, and related material online (not mine but very good), at https://providentliving.churchofjesuschrist.org/?lang=eng such as, specifially, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topi... .
(Maybe I should add those notes/links to my web site, for more easily referring people... Edit: The above, combining freedom + chances to learn responsibility, is far better IMO than letting the federal government run more of our lives, badly, and without giving a choice what to do with those $. I have written more on that at http://lukecall.net under Other then Politics or such. ) (Edit: fixed a couple of links.)
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>Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. This is absurd. Man in nature has no house, no car, no money, no tools, no storehouse, he can eat only what he can catch, kill or forage for. Everything we have in civilisation was built by people working hard to escape the poverty and brutality of nature.
Yes. But no one is poor if everyone is poor. Poverty is a relative term. It's basically inequality in disguise.
If there is any luck in life its the genetic lottery.
Okay these loans certainly sound like a bad deal, but what are people supposed to do? Say your car breaks and you can’t get to work. For all of us here billing out >$100hr or whatever your local consulting rate is, the answer is some calculus around the cost of losing your job vs the cost of fixing it. But for MOST people, the cost of fixing it is functionally infinite. They literally do not have even a few hundred d…
Maybe instead of pointing out how foolish, we can positively encourage good behavior, and tell them "you can do it!", and be a true friend, encouraging them to manage finances better. For example, we should all have some emergency savings, then build our savings, and sacrifice conveniences or fun as needed to get out of debt. We would do well to create a culture of not being victimized or manipulated so much by adver…
An emergency fund is very important, but most people in poverty live in the red perpetually. There is never extra cash to save up. Any extra money is swiftly gobbled up by debtors who wait indefinitely for any money to show.
Which is actually one reason you will see some poor people make seemingly ridiculous purchases as soon as they get money. They know from experience that any extra cash on hand will get taken by creditors as soon as they detect it. So they spend it. At least, if you buy something of value, you can pawn it for cash later when you need it.
It's a terrible cycle.
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Maybe instead of pointing out how foolish, we can positively encourage good behavior, and tell them "you can do it!", and be a true friend, encouraging them to manage finances better. For example, we should all have some emergency savings, then build our savings, and sacrifice conveniences or fun as needed to get out of debt. We would do well to create a culture of not being victimized or manipulated so much by adver…
I agree we should be teaching more financial literacy, but I think this, and most of these financial literacy courses, gloss over the realities of poverty. An emergency fund is very important, but most people in poverty live in the red perpetually. There is never extra cash to save up. Any extra money is swiftly gobbled up by debtors who wait indefinitely for any money to show. Which is actually one reason you will s…
And there is more at my web site. I have spent a great deal of time thinking about all these things, and writing. I have learned some things for myself.
(edit: a correction: the "development counseling" appears to be for Church members. The "immigrant services" and many other things like those online materials, classes done with the NAACP are not limited to Church members: https://providentliving.churchofjesuschrist.org/immigrant-se... . Etc.)
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Yes. But no one is poor if everyone is poor. Poverty is a relative term. It's basically inequality in disguise.
Man is created with equal rights but not equal talents or intelligence. If there is any luck in life its the genetic lottery.
It is the dark side of the internet.
We need to work to build communities where people are not as vulnerable to this type of scarcity.
For more information on this topic see the book: Scarcity: The New Science of Having Less and How It Defines Our Lives
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This is a bad way to run a society, that everyone is "in a fight to the death," especially for the wealthiest nation in history. We're sitting on enough resources to feed and house everyone, and the rich would still be fabulously rich. "I struggled, therefore struggle is okay" is not the answer.
I didn't quit and because of that succeeded in spite of the obstacles. There is your example. Trust me... being on disability was an option and quite tempting. I wanted more out of life than to sit around letting others take care of me.
Lots of people struggle and what you're describing is just crab bucket. You struggled so you think it's okay if everyone does.
It's not.
Okay these loans certainly sound like a bad deal, but what are people supposed to do? Say your car breaks and you can’t get to work. For all of us here billing out >$100hr or whatever your local consulting rate is, the answer is some calculus around the cost of losing your job vs the cost of fixing it. But for MOST people, the cost of fixing it is functionally infinite. They literally do not have even a few hundred d…
Maybe instead of pointing out how foolish, we can positively encourage good behavior, and tell them "you can do it!", and be a true friend, encouraging them to manage finances better. For example, we should all have some emergency savings, then build our savings, and sacrifice conveniences or fun as needed to get out of debt. We would do well to create a culture of not being victimized or manipulated so much by adver…
At some point they just lost hope. I can't blame them for racking up debt if the system lets them continue. It sounds better to continually pay off debt and enjoy life instead of to continually pay off debt and not enjoy it.
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I don't know - I have seen lots of zero interest offers - but never from Affirm. I have a 750+ credit score and last time I looked at Affirm for something (a glowforge I think), interest rates offered were above 21%!
They do, as I bought a Peloton using Affirm. I was ready to pay cash, but they offered to do an interest free, no fee loan thru Affirm and split it across a couple of years. So I did it, because why not? I’m guessing this was probably an arrangement between Peloton and Affirm to where the former paid some fee to the latter, and all of that is absorbed as marketing overhead just to get more people buying bikes.