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

761–770 of 920 posts

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

#761

Post by gizmo686 »

antognini wrote: post #594
mrsuprawsm wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My rental deposit is held in escrow by some third party; I've never heard of anyone not getting their deposit back when they move (unless they did something to deserve it e.g. trashing the place). This is only a relatively recent thing in the UK, introduced about 10 years ago, to tackle the problem described in the original post of landlords running off with tenants deposits. When I was a student ~10 years ago, just…

On paper many states in the US actually have pretty strong protections for tenants for their security deposits. It's not uncommon for states to have fairly strict standards as to the valid reasons a landlord can take money out of a security deposit. If a landlord withholds money for frivolous reasons the tenant can be entitled to double or treble damages. (So if they withhold $1000 for no reason, you can get back tha…

I don't know about most states, but in Maryland, the tenent is automatically entitled to attorney's fees when the landlord improperly withholds a deposit.

Granted, if you are poor, this likely means that you need to find a lawyer willing to work on contingency.

For what it is worth, just threatening to sue along with citing the relevent law and possible damages is probably enough. Landlords don't like going to court either, so if you make even a halfway credible threat they will probably pay.

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

#762

Post by austincheney »

anon_tor_12345 wrote: post #173
austincheney wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you want to know how people truly are, become actually poor, filthy, and seem depressed, then you will know their nature. You don’t need to be homeless to discover that some people lack sympathy. I lack sympathy. It doesn’t mean I’m an asshole. Sympathy isn’t empathy (huge distinction). Some people can’t tell the difference and everyone is just bad (cue the big tears). This is especially true if you’re a freeloa…

>This is especially true if you’re a freeloader. says the guy that was a pog for 24 years...

I stopped being a pog?

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

#763

Post by hcurtiss »

whimsicalism wrote: post #469
dahfizz wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3 of the 5 factors you list boil down to "OP made good decisions and worked hard". I'm not sure how that is a counter argument to "throwaway-0987 did it, and you can too! You just need to stop being so lazy". From their description, it doesn't sound like living with his Aunt was a tremendous boon either. I don't mean to argue against a social safety net (free college in this example was certainly a good thing). I jus…

> The government can not and should not lift people out of poverty if those people refuse to work to better themselves. I think everyone is deserving of not living in poverty. Even "lazy" people.

I disagree, and I think most people disagree. This is the ant and the grasshopper, man. Most people are not inclined to enslave the ant for the benefit of the grasshopper.

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

#764

Post by neverartful »

I didn't grow up being poor (not rich either, solid middle class), but I did witness extreme poverty. I was a young boy when many Vietnamese refugees came to the U.S. at the end of the Vietnam War. A number of families came to my small town and some of them came to my school. These families had nothing (no food, no money, no clothes) and to make it many times worse, they couldn't speak the language and it was a foreign culture for them. The local churches helped them with housing and some basic necessities. What they did have though was strong family ties (they stuck together) and the will to survive (and later thrive).

Many of them eventually established successful businesses, learned to speak English quite well, and their children were educated. I have great respect and admiration for their accomplishments in the face of such incredible adversity.

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

#765

Post by acdha »

WalterBright wrote: post #734
acdha wrote: post #722

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but note that your standing to do so varies considerably — I've never had problems doing that as a white man but I know people who declined to involve the city / law enforcement because they had had past bad experiences due to being black, gay, etc. If the landlord threatens to call the cops and you know a history of people like you having been mistreated or simply blown off, you might give up and accept it as a…

If you believe that nobody has tried to cheat me, steal from me, take advantage of my ignorance and inexperience, steamroll me, threaten me, con me, etc., you're very mistaken.

Oh, I definitely believe that. I'm just saying that the ability to push back varies more than it should in a just society.

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

#766

Post by chmod600 »

baby wrote: post #731
chmod600 wrote: post #546

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When wearing your policymaking hat, I agree that you should consider what people actually do (which is not always wise) rather than just what they should do. But when actually struggling (or perhaps even when comfortable), you should forget about policy and fairness and just make the best decisions you can and keep trying to do the right thing, and that gives you or your children or grandchildren the best chance to m…

> But the constant drumbeat of unfairness and victimhood is a counterproductive tactic in the policymaking process. I don't get it, do you think the system is fair? Do you think it's fine to have so many homeless people in the US because they were given a fair chance? Do you think it's fair that you can go bankrupt due to a medical issue?

No, of course life is not fair. But in the limited time we have, we can either discuss how to make the world more fair, or succeed despite unfairness.

Each discussion has its place. We shouldn't derail every success story with comments about how "privileged" someone is for having an aunt.

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

#767

Post by taurath »

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 -…

I only think of it as “failure is understandable and doesn’t reflect on you as a person” - but you bring up a good point. I have no patience for people who say “because I made it everyone else can too” which is a really common attitude. People play up their adversity (understandable; it’s the adversity one has had) and downplay their advantages. Lack of empathy and help for those struggling is unacceptable to me. As people succeed they tend to stop congregating around those that don’t, and I think that’s fine but to sit around those successful and vote against policies to help those not succeeding is to me a moral failing.

For those struggling through poverty - one must know that one CAN succeed, or else you end up in a psychological hole waiting for the next nibble of luck. A tempered balance of both optimism and also a real social safety net seems like the best of both worlds to me.

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

#768

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

dahfizz wrote: post #742
overlords wrote: post #696

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1 rich person saving his money so his 3 children never have to work is bad for the economy. It's better the 1 rich person is forced to consume that in his lifetime. By doing so that money is redistributed back to the economy, and his 3 kids are also productive. In scenario 1 only 1 out 4 people work. In scenario 2, 4 out of 4 people work. Also - it's hypocritical for 'pull yourself by your bootstraps' for children bo…

Its hard for me to imagine being so full of envy that you would like to see the children of rich people stripped of everything they have. Equality means nothing if you achieve it by pulling everyone down to the lowest level. > 1 rich person saving his money so his 3 children never have to work is bad for the economy. "Your rights are bad for the economy, we are taking everything from you. Back to work, pleb".

> Its hard for me to imagine being so full of envy that you would like to see the children of rich people stripped of everything they have.

I think you misread the sentiment. What a lot of us would like to see is a more meritocratic system, where children start off on more equal footing and either earn their wealth or not. But inherited works against that. It is difficult to listen to arguments against taxing the wealthy heavily "because they earned it" while at the same time hearing support for what amounts to aristocracy.

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

#769

Post by taurath »

cwp wrote: post #328
burlesona wrote: post #167

This is a great write-up, and as someone who spent time being poor-ish, it really resonated. What I realized from my own life experience: the US sawed the bottom rungs off the ladder in the 1950s when it suburbanized. There is no affordable housing or transportation in 95% of the North American land area, and virtually every societal problem we deal with either stems from this or is made worse by it. Then the healthc…

I noticed this after spending time in developing countries. They are set up much better for being poor. Trivial example: you can go into a pharmacy and buy two aspirin. Some people can't afford 100 at a time, and don't need that many anyway. Or rent: you can get a place to live for only $60/month. There's no running water, but it's clean and dry and it has a lock on the door. The cheapest place you can find in the US…

Also people live in communities, not fortresses. Look at farmland villages in almost any country in the world and then see the US with sometimes literal miles between single houses. Suburbs are intended to keep other people out more than anything, but also don’t provide practically any services. There’s no corner store inside a suburb, one must exit first.

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

#770

Post by taurath »

mattlondon wrote: post #647
treis wrote: post #626

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author spent multiple paragraphs giving excuses why it's hard. The way out doesn't take that long to explain. Say we have someone netting 2k a month or 24k a year: For a month: Room - $500 Food - $200 Health Insurance - $0 w/ Obamacare subsidies Other Necessities - $200 Entertainment - $100 So we have $1,000 left over and have to deal with transportation. Our target is something like this 2009 Toyota Matrix with…

500 for car expenses a month ? Seems crazy to put away 6k a year to maintain a car that is under 4k. If you need to spend 500 a month to keep the car on the road you need to get a different car. A good used Toyota or Mazda or Honda will run for YEARS and huge mileages with only basic maintenance - like one oil change and new windscreen wipers every year levels of maintenance. Nothing breaks. These sorts of used civic…

It’s hard to find any decent car for under $3500 in many parts of the US, which is a lot to save while paying rent and taking the bus. Those cars you’re mentioning are popular, especially right now and that drives the price up. Then you have liability insurance and to get the minimum with bad or no credit it’s usually around $100/mo. But yes $500/month on car expenses is too much.
Post reply on HN