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Being poor vs. being broke

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Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#511

Post by foobarian »

vkou wrote: post #389
9rx wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> terrified to discard anything even if its broken because there are components that might be useful to fix something else I've fortunately never been poor, or even temporary broke, but I'm not sure how you'd get through life with without this. I've gotten myself out of so many binds by being able to repurpose something out of the junk pile. It is not even about the money, more being able to deal with it immediately.…

> I've gotten myself out of so many binds by being able to repurpose something out of the junk pile When you have money, you can just buy the thing you need, instead of hoarding five metric tonnes of crap that you'll never use. If you haven't used something in the past 5 years, you can almost certainly toss it.

> you can just buy the thing you need

Ah but if only it were so simple. In my woodworking shop, in pretty much every project I end up using odd scraps for either temporary scaffolding or jigs or what have you that would be difficult to buy. You would have to go out of your way to buy a large board, and cut it up intentionally. Even then you would not have as rich a set of scraps. Actually the value is not in the material itself but in the variety of the shapes.

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#512

Post by novavex »

washadjeffmad wrote: post #326
ASalazarMX wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conversely, I had an acquaintance that grew poor, and would finish 95% of the cookies in a bag, but always leave the almost empty bag to the next person to find out, even if it had to stay that way for months. Strangely, she did that only with comfort foods.

The 'blank in the firing squad' technique of snacking is a pretty typical girl thing. Eating cookies? Perfectly fine. Eating an entire bag of cookies? Gross. Unthinkable. But how many cookies is really fine to eat? The safest best is not to know, either by breaking them into uncountable pieces or leaving some in the bag for someone else to finish (meaning, you ate less than a bag of cookies and are safe).

Additional anecdata, and also a woman:

I do this for any or all of the following reasons:

* (culture) it is polite to leave something for the next person

* (I have roommates) I don't want to be the last person who finished something. I would be obliged to replace it.

For the typical girl thing, I haven't seen this behavior in real life with my family members or friends. I have heard of the concept on social media.

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#513

Post by simoncion »

9rx wrote: post #459
simoncion wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true that the word 'urban' is a substring match for the word 'suburban'. You're right about that.

Correct, but irrelevant. Suburban is a subset of urban, not the other way around — originally referring to the portion of an urban area found outside of the wall. The physical walls aren't often found anymore, but the term still refers to an urban area that surrounds where a wall might have been placed historically.

> Suburban is ... originally referring to...

Like you said, this is irrelevant. Cities aren't planned or built like that, and really haven't been... since the founding of the USA, at the very latest. (If they were, the Brits would have had a much more difficult time capturing D.C. than they did.)

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#514

Post by simoncion »

9rx wrote: post #492
simoncion wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Theoretically it is possible that one person could, on their own, produce enough calories with cattle to feed around two people. Right. This is the same species as the "birthing in olden times was fatal 50% of the time" assertion. Anyway, I see what you're driving at. Yes. I agree that a lone, naked, unarmed human surrounded by a couple dozen wolves looking to eat him right now is almost certainly going to be eaten…

> Though, what that has to do with a lone farmer getting fat off his own produce, I have no idea. Me neither as it has never happened. Said farmer was typically burning around 4-6,000 calories per day. If eating butter and fatty meats as suggested, we're talking a pretty significant time commitment just for maintenance, never mind pushing yourself over the time. You can't exactly guzzle down a slab of meat like it is…

> Me neither as it has never happened.

kek-a-roonie.

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#515

Post by fouc »

dijit wrote: post #455
danans wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've never earned above £0, and at this point it's too late to care If you have never earned above 0 at age 37, that suggests that you have a personal situation that actually prevents you from working, not so different from a disabled person might face. Just as tragic is the fact that people who do work full time and earn very little also end up in similar debt spirals. In benevolent societies such people might end…

it’s not terribly uncommon even in the UK to be generationally unemployable. Homelife being bad = bad grades bad grades = no support for further education no basic (or further) education = disadvantage in entry jobs no experience in entry jobs = red flag for employers (even for other entry level jobs in future where better educated folks fresh from school are also applying). The larger the gap, the bigger the red fla…

It's amazing how much upward mobility software development has provided to countless people that didn't finish high school or university.

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#516

Post by fouc »

corobo wrote: post #482
danans wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've never earned above £0, and at this point it's too late to care If you have never earned above 0 at age 37, that suggests that you have a personal situation that actually prevents you from working, not so different from a disabled person might face. Just as tragic is the fact that people who do work full time and earn very little also end up in similar debt spirals. In benevolent societies such people might end…

I work and earn money, my balance has never been above zero. Worded it clumsily maybe.

I don't know if it would be useful to you, but perhaps try reading some of the blog posts on earlyretirementextreme.com. Lots of good ideas there on how to save money, be frugal, etc.

Or read a book like "Your money or your life"

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#517

Post by speakfreely »

mgraczyk wrote: post #498

Why is it that the 50 year old Pakistani man who just moved here and doesn't speak English seems to be doing so much better than "poor" Americans who complain online all the time. Or the 23 year old dishwasher from Mexico who speaks no English and stopped going to school at age 13 with two kids he's supporting in a small apartment Sure they struggle but they seem to do a lot better than a lot of the 25 year old colle…

Happiness = reality - expectations

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#518

Post by andrewl »

steveBK123 wrote: post #481
telesilla wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A close friend grew up in first-world poverty (meaning, warm house, state-supported education, health care) but experienced no luxuries. To this day, they will buy themselves a tub of ice-cream or chocolate and eat it all completely alone, almost hoarding it, because growing up they had to share everything with the many siblings. It's crazy how weird pathologies we humans have.

Money psychology is interesting in that people often end up being traumatized by their parents into behaving identically when the circumstances no longer warrant it, OR have a knee-jerk reaction living their life completely the opposite way because growing up that way drove them insane.

A similar thing happens with children of parents who came out of war zones or famines. Sometimes the children are explicitly taught that violence or starvation can come at any moment. Often they learn to feel under threat implicitly by picking up their parents’ affect, without any message or lesson being clearly stated.

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#519

Post by el_memorioso »

mgraczyk wrote: post #498

Why is it that the 50 year old Pakistani man who just moved here and doesn't speak English seems to be doing so much better than "poor" Americans who complain online all the time. Or the 23 year old dishwasher from Mexico who speaks no English and stopped going to school at age 13 with two kids he's supporting in a small apartment Sure they struggle but they seem to do a lot better than a lot of the 25 year old colle…

It's good you put "poor" in scare quotes. The truly poor are not complaining online all the time because they don't have the time and/or money to be bitching online. You seemed to have missed one of the primary points of the article.

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#520

Post by cryptonector »

torlok wrote: post #433
cryptonector wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have family that dedicated most of their life to fighting poverty (with very limited success). Yes, it's very difficult to defeat poverty. But it has been happening world-wide. Poverty has been going down world-wide for 200 years. It's not so much through the efforts of individuals or even governments, just a network effect of technological advancements and opportunity creation (made possible by those advancement…

Sounds like the optimism rhetoric of Steven Pinker. I suggest you read up on the numerous criticisms of his work. Most of the optimism is based on a ridiculously low global poverty line conjured out of thin air, and other nonsense like GDP.

What you're saying is nonsense. I don't even know who Steven Pinker is. Poverty two hundred years ago was way worse than poverty today in most of the world -- this is a self-evident fact to anyone with even a passing knowledge of history. No running water, no water mains, no sewers -- these things meant death from cholera and other diseases for many children, and that's just for starters.
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