Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

residentcontrarian.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

391–400 of 920 posts

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#391

Post by dghlsakjg »

blackshaw wrote: post #15
ImaCake wrote: post #7

>while it’s normal to put down a month or two worth of rent as a security deposit, it’s much less normal to get it back This looks insane to an Australian. I have moved house 4 times in the past 5 years and I have never not got all of my bond back. Some states here have a rule that the bond money is held by the state so that the landowner doesn't just take that money for themselves. How can the poor ever break the cy…

Yeah, a bunch of things in this article strike me as very American (I'm British). No-one in the UK worries about not being able to afford healthcare if they're poor, nor do they need a car to get to the grocery store in under an hour (unless they live in an isolated home out in the countryside, which probably means they're rich, not poor.) There are many, many places you can live in the UK without needing a car to ge…

The US is a large and very diverse place, and very frequently you will find that there are very clear laws about what a landlord is and isn't allowed to charge for, as well as what proof they need to take a deposit. For example, Seattle has its own set of rules which are quite clear and don't allow contracts that would override them, in other places there are no rules, and what is in the contract is what you must abide by.

The problem, that the author alluded to, is that there is no one that will solve or mediate a dispute short of taking a claim to court in the US. This is generally pretty cheap and easy for small claims, if you know what you are doing. Most people don't know what they are doing, or have no idea that small claims is even an option.

As an American who now lives in a place with socialized healthcare, I can safely say that I'm not moving back until the US sorts out the healthcare crisis. I'm in Canada now, which is used as a punching bag by conservative Americans for how bad socialized healthcare can be. Anyone who has lived in both places knows how laughable that claim is. Canadians certainly have their complaints about this system, but I have never heard a Canadian ask for US style healthcare.

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#392

Post by acdha »

sandworm101 wrote: post #384
acdha wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might narrowly be true if your definition of engine excludes other ICE-only components like the transmission or radiator (which is technically correct in specialist discussion but not general usage). The most common non-crash explanation I’ve heard people cite for turning cars into write-offs with is a blown head gasket, so I’m not sure about your thesis in general, and it’s certainly not something an electric c…

>> a blown head gasket That's a one/two-hour job, a thousand dollars at most. I don't think they are selling the car because the engine is bad rather that the car is now worth more in parts than as a complete object. The engine isn't dead, just in need of repair. This happens to electric drivetrains too. Windings break. Bolts shear. Bearings fail. And many/most electric cars (tesla) still have transmission-type thing…

1-2 hours if it doesn’t cause heat damage - maybe my relatives have been unlucky but a couple had warping from explosive failures.

(Disclaimer: I’m a software guy, might be misremembering – the key point was that basically all of the times I’ve heard someone mention involuntarily getting rid of a car it was either an accident or something which does not affect BEVs.)

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#393

Post by protomyth »

You end up with some things that stick with you even if they make no sense anymore and are a lot more suspicious of people's motives because you've seen how parts of society get away with some crap.

I still won't eat fish willingly. In the USA, Check where police checkpoints are setup on the morning of the 1st in your area. Notice what is on-sale and what the displays are in the grocery stores on the 1st. Check the EBT signs in your local gas station. Just some examples of the odd things most people don't notice.

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#394

Post by trynumber9 »

pokot0 wrote: post #381

European pro life tip: if you make 200.000/yr don't let anyone lend you money. Buy your car cash, no cc debt. Mortgage would be the only exception. I honestly find it crazy how most american are ok with living on someone else money and pay the interests just to have a current year car...

Often you can get no interest loans for new cars. In that case, it is cheaper to invest the cash and pay off the loan with less valuable money over the next few years.

Of course the car is still depreciating rapidly so I question the wisdom of buying a current year car at all. But it is comforting to have a newer car covered by warranty.

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#395

Post by JKCalhoun »

throwaway846 wrote: post #251
throwaway-0987 wrote: post #174

Throwaway because I don't want my co-workers to know. I was poor. My father left home when I was a kid in middle school. My mom worked part time cleaning houses and left us when she found a new husband. I dropped out of high-school in the 9th grade and went to work. Low paying jobs. I lived with my aunt on the bad side of town. Fast-forward 35 years. Today, I make about 200K per year. I got a GED, went to trade schoo…

Similar story I'm now late 30s; father left when i was 2 died of aids when I was 6 Mother washed dishes then was unemployed from age 12-now and we bounced around her boyfriends houses My metric (edit: for myself) "have you been poor" is gathering extra condiments from a gas station and having mustard on bread for a meal. We had food stamps, and a small social security check. I always had a bed, and food, but barely a…

Oh wow, similar for me as well. Mom kept us in the "good schools" though by renting the smallest place you could in said Good School District.

Also, lots of weekends at public libraries.

(Thanks, mom!)

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#396

Post by musingsole »

collyw wrote: post #158
bradleyjg wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d go further—-why do all narratives around poverty have to revolve around the middle class? Either someone used to be middle class and is now poor, grew up poor and is now middle class or at very least is moving towards that end. Where are the stories about people born into poverty, still in poverty, and not likely to be anything but poor for the rest of their lives? There are lots of people like this and cutting o…

> Where are the stories about people born into poverty, still in poverty, and not likely to be anything but poor for the rest of their lives? Thomas Sowell says that it's actually a pretty small percentage of people like that. Most poor people are young and most rich people are old. Young people become older and the vast majority work their way up the pay scale to some extent.

Seems like the thing to put some numbers on. If that perpetually poor narrative is only true for 1% of Americans, that's a population bigger than my hometown being forever mischaracterized and unrepresented. Ignoring the realities of others' lives is how we got rising fascism.

I doubt many are comforted in knowing they're a statistical minority.

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#397

Post by trynumber9 »

ImaCake wrote: post #7

>while it’s normal to put down a month or two worth of rent as a security deposit, it’s much less normal to get it back This looks insane to an Australian. I have moved house 4 times in the past 5 years and I have never not got all of my bond back. Some states here have a rule that the bond money is held by the state so that the landowner doesn't just take that money for themselves. How can the poor ever break the cy…

I'm American and my experience matches yours. I've always got my deposit back. However, if there is a country that embodies "your mileage may vary" it is the USA.

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#398

Post by wwweston »

chunkyfunky wrote: post #376
syops wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I very much enjoyed reading your post. You made a statement that, taken literally, I disagree with and wonder if you care to elaborate more on it. I made it and you can too. It seems to me that luck plays a huge role in each success story like yours. My wife had a similar trajectory and makes quite a bit of money. However, along the way, there were hundreds of decisions made that could have gone the wrong way. She's…

As someone who came from a fairly poor background (not half as as bad as the OP to be fair) and who has managed to "break out" I can say for sure that looking back I had a ton of lucky breaks - but, and this to me is crucial, only after I stopped worrying about what might go wrong and focus on what I could do right. If I had predicated my success on somehow getting lucky I don't think I would have made it. So to me -…

Thanks for articulating this. I'd already wondered why I both like and dislike "I made it and you can too" and you captured it.

It's good for motivation and ... less good for social policy.

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#399

Post by dnautics »

I've had the experiences of:

1. being on the high end of poor while being oblivious and in a socially highbrow environment (STEM grad school, $26k/yr salary, high cost-of-living city). I also felt privileged because i lived in a "foreign postdoc ghetto" where my neighbors were a single family on a postdoc salary (probably somewhere between 27-30k) living in a one-bedroom with two kids.

2. the experience of being "service-collar" middle-class while having peers that have mostly emerged from being poor (Lyft driver, $56k/yr earnings)

Now I'm a dev, on the lower end of the pay scale for bay area devs but one thing is I'm pretty fearless about winding up poor again because I know I can hack it and still live happily. Now I'm a dev, probably on the lower end of the spectrum for the bay area

Re: On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't

#400

Post by alistairSH »

burntoutfire wrote: post #382
mikem170 wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yep, the US healthcare system basically means you have to be a multimillionaire when you've retired That's just not true. Everyone qualifies for Medicare when they are 65 years old. An extra $150/month gets you supplemental insurance, with a lower deductable than many work plans. Also, and this is significant, medical bills can't collect against retirement accounts. The law is that they can't touch it. Same with yo…

So how come I keep hearing that a significant portion of homeless in the US have lost their houses in a medical-event-realted bankruptcy?

Retirees qualify for nationalized health insurance. In theory, those 65+ would be mostly immune for health-related bankruptcy (although co-pays/deductibles can still be problematic).

Anybody younger has to pay for health care out of pocket or buy insurance. The cost of paying OOP is exorbitant. Even buying insurance on the open market is outrageously expensive. In either case, major medical issues can easily escalate to be financially disastrous.

Edit - in my original post, I stated doubling my net worth (or income or whatever) wouldn't allow me to retire in my 50s due to potential medical costs. This is what I mean - even with a few million in the bank, retirement isn't feasible due to the cost of buying healthcare in the US.

I had this conversation with an uncle who lives in Scotland. He didn't understand why my dad was still working (at age 60). Medical insurance was the only reason. As soon as he got Medicare, he retired.

Post reply on HN