61–70 of 126 posts
And poor decisions make people poor.
People don't need cash. That's the easy way out for intellectuals. And they sure as shit don't need a casino in their town. They need social infrastructure (families, extended families, social institutions like churches and service organizations), cultural infrastructure, and economic opportunity within this stable social structure. All of which the intellectual class has been helping the financial elites destroy for…
I don't see attention being spent on church helping the community... some churches may spend 10-20% of their efforts helping the community, sure, but why not go to a soup kitchen or animal shelter or litter pick-up? Then 100% of your effort is helping others, not listening to stories from ancient books or discussing how mythical beings would view our sins.
Community-wise, I'd prefer to play music, sports, sing in a chorus, head to a farmer's market or pub trivia. All of these don't require an abandonment of reason and enlightenment whilst still building community. And even when I have attended church, most people consider it a perfunctory duty to ensure they aren't put into Hell or, more closely, that they aren't judged by themselves or others for being pagans.
People don't need cash. That's the easy way out for intellectuals. And they sure as shit don't need a casino in their town. They need social infrastructure (families, extended families, social institutions like churches and service organizations), cultural infrastructure, and economic opportunity within this stable social structure. All of which the intellectual class has been helping the financial elites destroy for…
I don't know, as someone who grew up in a dysfunctional family, I feel like if your parents are not good parents you're basically screwed. You just have to wait until you're grown up and make that tech salary to pay your therapist for a long time. If there is neglect or abuse at home, it doesn't matter if there's some mildly positive neighbours / aunts / church people, I think it's hard for that to make a real differ…
Nothing this side of heaven is perfect, of course.
> Poverty is not a lack of character – it’s a lack of cash. No. Poverty is a lack of education and, more importantly, mentorship. I am battling this right now with my next door neighbors, who use HOC, a Maryland social service that basically puts poor people in middle class neighborhoods by subsidizing rent. My neighbors have money. They spend it extremely poorly. It's a single mom with 2 kids. Both kids have iPhones…
It sounds like HOC has found this kid a possible mentor. Without it, the kid would never have met someone like you. As I understand, this is pretty much exactly the goal of such programs, to surround poor families stuck in the cycle with middle class knowledge/experience/wisdom.
However, it wasn't something we knew about when we moved in, and living in close proximity to them has put other strains on us that make us want to move (for example, since we share a wall, our house stinks like marijuana every weekend due to them hot boxing; also they've completely trashed their unit and you can tell from the outside - the blinds are all mangled and one of the windows is missing which I imagine might make it harder to sell our own home).
I agree it's a probably a net gain overall though.
> Poverty is not a lack of character – it’s a lack of cash. No. Poverty is a lack of education and, more importantly, mentorship. I am battling this right now with my next door neighbors, who use HOC, a Maryland social service that basically puts poor people in middle class neighborhoods by subsidizing rent. My neighbors have money. They spend it extremely poorly. It's a single mom with 2 kids. Both kids have iPhones…
I agree, but I also think there's social cost to not spending your money on status symbols. You will be ostracized by the rich and educated groups for not fitting in, and then how will you acclimate to a higher social sphere? Example[1] [1] https://gizmodo.com/im-buying-an-iphone-because-im-ashamed-o... edit: Ok this obviously isn't black and white, but I'm saying this should be considered among other things.
For the most part class signaling on the easier end (looks, mostly) has more to do with choices than outright spending. It's why a relatively poor college professor on the East coast can still look "upper middle". Their clothes may be a bit worn, some hand-me-downs, some thrifted, but they're the right clothes. Swapping the legible t-shirt & hoodie for a cotton button-up and wool cardigan or a blazer and the $100-150 sneakers for $100-150 (clearance, seconds, or used) leather loafers will do a lot more to signal higher class than an iPhone, and none of those clothes need look new—making the mistake of spending money on stuff like electronics or boldly-branded expensive clothes while getting other things very wrong is a class marker, but not one most would intentionally choose to display if they understood it.
[EDIT] in short, always having new phones and video game consoles and such only signals wealth & higher status to poor people—absent other markers of higher class they'll actual read as low class to everyone else.
> Poverty is not a lack of character – it’s a lack of cash. No. Poverty is a lack of education and, more importantly, mentorship. I am battling this right now with my next door neighbors, who use HOC, a Maryland social service that basically puts poor people in middle class neighborhoods by subsidizing rent. My neighbors have money. They spend it extremely poorly. It's a single mom with 2 kids. Both kids have iPhones…
I also want to say, having an iPad or two, a PS4 and cable TV, that's not really a good indicator of wealth. People's top expenses are generally housing, transportation, utilities and food, possibly healthcare if you need it. In your example, rent is subsidized, that means the top expense is minimized and a lot of savings comes from that. That said, I don't think its logical to say that the savings from holding off from buying two iPhones, an iPad and a PS4 can match that. Rent average price for a 2-bedroom is 1200$. That means in 2 or 3 months of rent, you've already purchased 2 iPhones, an iPad and a PS4. So no one can pay their rent by simply not buying these things. So I'm challenging your quote saying: "My neighbors have money". Do they really?
> Poverty is not a lack of character – it’s a lack of cash. No. Poverty is a lack of education and, more importantly, mentorship. I am battling this right now with my next door neighbors, who use HOC, a Maryland social service that basically puts poor people in middle class neighborhoods by subsidizing rent. My neighbors have money. They spend it extremely poorly. It's a single mom with 2 kids. Both kids have iPhones…
Let's not forget how advertising plays into this mentality. Advertising's sole purpose is to make you feel inferior/incomplete/inadequate without shiny new X. It's blasting at us constantly from every direction. Who is the most susceptible to it, those who are not struggling, or those who are? So they buy shiny new X, which is a bad financial decision.
I disagree with this. I’ve never felt "inadequate" because of an ad.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>No. Poverty is a lack of education and, more importantly, mentorship. Yep, you nailed it. A friend of mine was ranting on how the poor people(in Europe) spend their money on iPhones, cigars, alcohol and cable TV instead of saving it. Lately, I realized that poor people spend their money on those things since it's their way of short term escapism from feeling poor and if they were to save it, the amount would be too…
>spend their money on iPhones, cigars, alcohol and cable TV instead of saving it Do you spend your money on those things instead of saving it?
Since I don't come from money, I try to save as much as I can so I can buy my own place and start my own business in the future.
Meanwhile one of my youngest friends who works as a bike food delivery agent, owns a MacBook Pro, the latest iPhone, a PS4 with an ever increasing library of games, goes clubbing a lot and complains he can't find a good job.
Unfortunately, the latter example is an ever growing category in Europe of future failures since youngsters are told they can be and do whatever they want and opportunities will just come to you if you're patient and if that fails, the government is there to support you.
Not saying I'm a poster child for financial success, far from it, I have my own guilty pleasures that keep my sanity intact, everybody has, but most people born in lower class families seem to be clueless about how to get out and it ain't by frivolous spending.
Poverty is not a lack of cash alone... Its a lack of cash, education-mentoring, and lack of good choices..ie no economic difference between all the bad choices before them
+ A lack of hope
+ A dearth of empirical evidence supporting the above