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Why Do People Stay Poor? [pdf]

sticerd.lse.ac.uk

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Re: Why Do People Stay Poor? [pdf]

#301

Post by jlokier »

JAlexoid wrote: post #298
jlokier wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what else is there to do? If things are tight enough, you spend all that useless "free time" hunting for more work. You feel you can't afford to just enjoy the time. More gigs. More waiting for an Uber request. More time polishing your resume, or your profile on Fiverr. Or improving your "Github is the new resume" look. Then it's not really free time. It's a job, but you're not paid every hour you're working on it.…

> More waiting for an Uber request. Presuming there's an Uber and you have a driver's license(they're not free you know) and a car. >More gigs. You are aware that gig economy is just about 5 years old, right? And you have to be in a high demand area to do it. There were coders for hire sites for a long time, but that paid complete crap.

> Presuming there's an Uber and you have a driver's license(they're not free you know) and a car.

Uber is just to illustrate. It's just an example. If you're in the wrong area, or the wrong time for that matter, then it's something else.

Either way you're (and were) spending that "free" time looking for jobs, quick jobs, whatever jobs. They used to call it pounding the streets or getting on your bike. Even going door to door.

When I was young I did it myself, literally going from door to door asking if they had any work.

> There were coders for hire sites for a long time, but that paid complete crap

That's why I mentioned Fiverr, as an example, which is a version of the coders-for-low-pay thing generalised to other kinds of work.

Re: Why Do People Stay Poor? [pdf]

#302

Post by jcun4128 »

JAlexoid wrote: post #297
jcun4128 wrote: post #10

Without making the jump from washing plates/factory work to software I don't know how I would have escaped(still haven't) considering my pay increased 4 times. Just brutal when you trade hours for money directly at a low rate, I was doing 70hrs washing plates before and it was nothing ha. Edit: there is the thought of living within your means, personally with a roommate I could live on $10-$20K a year which you can m…

I spent about 10 years of studying before I landed my first quality job. I went through literal poverty at that time - having $10 per week for myself and my schizophrenic mother to live off. I was also lucky, because my sister left to work in Italy. That would make all of the difference... If I didn't have: - free education secondary and higher - low cost local transport - a suit given by my sister - 4 tickets to ano…

> having $10 per week

Wow... how is that possible, I guess depends where/maybe what year.

Glad to hear you got to a better situation

Re: Why Do People Stay Poor? [pdf]

#303

Post by JAlexoid »

jcun4128 wrote: post #302
JAlexoid wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spent about 10 years of studying before I landed my first quality job. I went through literal poverty at that time - having $10 per week for myself and my schizophrenic mother to live off. I was also lucky, because my sister left to work in Italy. That would make all of the difference... If I didn't have: - free education secondary and higher - low cost local transport - a suit given by my sister - 4 tickets to ano…

> having $10 per week Wow... how is that possible, I guess depends where/maybe what year. Glad to hear you got to a better situation

It's barely possible... but it is poverty of depressive proportions.

Think of never having new clothes, only donated clothes.

Re: Why Do People Stay Poor? [pdf]

#304

Post by JAlexoid »

jlokier wrote: post #301
JAlexoid wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> More waiting for an Uber request. Presuming there's an Uber and you have a driver's license(they're not free you know) and a car. >More gigs. You are aware that gig economy is just about 5 years old, right? And you have to be in a high demand area to do it. There were coders for hire sites for a long time, but that paid complete crap.

> Presuming there's an Uber and you have a driver's license(they're not free you know) and a car. Uber is just to illustrate. It's just an example. If you're in the wrong area, or the wrong time for that matter, then it's something else. Either way you're (and were) spending that "free" time looking for jobs, quick jobs, whatever jobs. They used to call it pounding the streets or getting on your bike. Even going door…

> When I was young I did it myself, literally going from door to door asking if they had any work.

This depends very much on the location and the community around you.

Looking for odd jobs around you yields no results in a poverty depressed area.

Re: Why Do People Stay Poor? [pdf]

#305

Post by ultrarunner »

jlokier wrote: post #272
ultrarunner wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In our area average rent has now overtaken our mortgage payment. So glad we got off that treadmill.

It's cyclic. Where I live, when I was too young to buy, mortgage was cheaper. When I was old enough to buy, rent was cheaper and prices had already risen enormously, so I stuck with rent, and hoped prices would stabilise or fall. In retrospect this was a mistake, as prices continued to rise. Now mortgages are cheaper than rent again.

That is interesting. I have only owned a house for ~7 years, so I likely haven't experienced this cycle. Thanks for the insight.

Re: Why Do People Stay Poor? [pdf]

#306

Post by jgalt212 »

tptacek wrote: post #300
jgalt212 wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One is a proxy for the other. There is $1.5T [1] in total outstanding student debt. There would not be such a large amount without a number of factors, but the most important piece of this puzzle is the number of students and that correlates 1:1 to with admission slots. So as I originally posited, there are enough admission slots (probably way too many given default rates) at the aggregate level. Maybe there are not…

Strong disagree; this is a repeated pattern with subsidies in regulated/controlled industries: subsidy increases demand, and supply doesn't automatically scale to meet the demand. When's the last time we added a new competitive 4-year university? Ave Maria?

> competitive

Your persistent use of modifiers is misrepresenting my argument.

Re: Why Do People Stay Poor? [pdf]

#307

Post by causehealth101 »

JAlexoid wrote: post #297
jcun4128 wrote: post #10

Without making the jump from washing plates/factory work to software I don't know how I would have escaped(still haven't) considering my pay increased 4 times. Just brutal when you trade hours for money directly at a low rate, I was doing 70hrs washing plates before and it was nothing ha. Edit: there is the thought of living within your means, personally with a roommate I could live on $10-$20K a year which you can m…

I spent about 10 years of studying before I landed my first quality job. I went through literal poverty at that time - having $10 per week for myself and my schizophrenic mother to live off. I was also lucky, because my sister left to work in Italy. That would make all of the difference... If I didn't have: - free education secondary and higher - low cost local transport - a suit given by my sister - 4 tickets to ano…

Wow, quite an experience. I'm curious: how did those rich people use your schizophrenic mother in tax avoidance scheme?

Re: Why Do People Stay Poor? [pdf]

#308

Post by causehealth101 »

redorb wrote: post #165
jfrunyon wrote: post #143

Easy answer: because expenses are higher for poor people. Instead of buying a home, the lower class rent their whole life. Instead of their daddy giving them a home, the middle class pay interest on a mortgage most of their life. Instead of buying a 20-pack of $necessary_product that costs $20 and will last for months, the lower class buy a 2-pack that costs $5 and lasts a couple weeks because they need the $15 to pa…

This is a great definition of what I consider to be the 'poor tax'.. Not to mention if they ever get un-poor they don't have the knowledge to 'build wealth' until they start slowly learning it or from a mentor. We would better off teaching 'home finances, interest and banking' classes instead of Algebra 3 or geometry 2 (for 99% of people)

It's a sad state of affairs. There are far more resources available these days to combat the information asymmetry that drives the "financial planning" industry, but it's not nearly enough to help the people who actually NEED it.

I began my career in private wealth management (minimum $5M investable assets).

I ditched that to try to help real people...joined a brokerage where I discovered sales targets still required $250K, at the very least, in investable assets (this excludes include home and any assets that cannot be held by the brokerage, so the net worth of these people was usually $500K+).

I finally gave up and attempted to run a business on a different fee model to educate lower/lower-middle class people on their finances. The Great Recession and my youthful idealism & naivete destroyed that.

Re: Why Do People Stay Poor? [pdf]

#309

Post by schrodinger »

econcon wrote: post #250
schrodinger wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't a government bond basically equivalent to inflation? That would mean you have a risk-free way to get "inflation" returns, with the caveat that you can't access the money for a period of time. Although I guess you can argue that "tying up" the money is a form a risk, and almost certainly a luxury some poor people cannot afford.

>Isn't a government bond basically equivalent to inflation? That would mean you have a risk-free way to get "inflation" returns, with the caveat that you can't access the money for a period of time It's not risk free, there is nothing that stops government from creating inflation so they can pay off the debt for in inflated dollars. Today, central bank alone doesn't have power to make create money out of thin air. Go…

Treasury bills are considered "risk-free", although pedantically of course nothing is actually free of risk.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/risk-freereturn.asp

Re: Why Do People Stay Poor? [pdf]

#310

Post by dkn775 »

scruple wrote: post #179
ip26 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we're talking broke, we're talking $1k cars and $100-200 bicycles. My first car was $800 and I bought a few motorcycles over the years for around $400 each.

Yeah. My first car in 1996 was a Buick Century that I got for $1,000. My brother had this shitty mid-80s 2-door Pontiac Sunbird that he got for like $600 in 91 when he graduated from high school. I kept that Buick in service until 2001 when I enlisted, I don't know what happened to it after that. I got a 94 Ford Ranger, around 2003, when I needed a car again and was making some better money for around $4,000. I sold…

Those xB were really a great car and practical. I still remember those Scion meetups they would have where they encouraged an active aftermarket community. For their odd design it has aged well. I still see a lot on the road, I think you'll have no problem getting it to last that long.
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