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Being poor vs. being broke

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Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#601

Post by lurk2 »

hippo22 wrote: post #545
dwedge wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> its not uncommon to have the few worthwhile items you own being seized by bailifs to recoup debts, treasured heirlooms that cannot be replaced and have little monetary value so they do no impact to your debt. The hoarding of canned goods to avoid being unable to eat. As a teenager I worked at a bailiffs in the office typing up the paperwork. One case that stuck was me was where the debtor owed somewhere around £400…

[flagged]

> Whenever "the poor" are debated, it seems that people always assume they're totally incapable of helping themselves.

You just argued the bike wouldn’t have been sufficient to pay the debt. How would the owner have helped himself by selling it?

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#602

Post by jjav »

hippo22 wrote: post #545
dwedge wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> its not uncommon to have the few worthwhile items you own being seized by bailifs to recoup debts, treasured heirlooms that cannot be replaced and have little monetary value so they do no impact to your debt. The hoarding of canned goods to avoid being unable to eat. As a teenager I worked at a bailiffs in the office typing up the paperwork. One case that stuck was me was where the debtor owed somewhere around £400…

[flagged]

> Then did the debtor not sell the motorbike to pay the debt?

Because (it seems from OP story) that the court blatantly stole it from them, so they never had a chance.

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#603

Post by lurk2 »

foobarian wrote: post #511
vkou wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 mate…

> Actually the value is not in the material itself but in the variety of the shapes.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7Fw7bZoPyVU

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#604

Post by lurk2 »

kelvinjps10 wrote: post #290
jandrewrogers wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is an element of "right country, right time" when it comes to being able to escape poverty with hard work and grit, though hard work and grit always helps. I am extremely fortunate to have been born in the US. My outcome would have been vastly harder to achieve almost anywhere else. Even in the US it was far from certain.

I'm immigrant that come to the us and always that the Americans complain is hardd to understand, like for example inflation they complain about being 3% in my country there was hyperinflation 1000%, also I didn't use to have running water(water would come every 3 days) and electricity would stop working every few days and it would take several hours or days to get fixed. then working here there is so many jobs and yo…

American living standards have declined from their peak in the mid-to-late 20th century. If you’re under 40 you will likely be materially worse off than your parents even if you are better educated than they are. It isn’t like this in the developing world, so there is still an optimism there for the young professionals benefitting from the development.

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#605

Post by spwa4 »

prmph wrote: post #574
spwa4 wrote: post #510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> health care is more accessible to poor people in 3rd-world countries than in some advanced countries (e.g., US). Do you seriously believe it's even remotely comparable? In 3rd-world countries even basic healthcare is totally inaccessible unless someone in your family is at the top level of government. If you're a worker or in a worker family even glasses are probably almost impossible to get.

> In 3rd-world countries even basic healthcare is totally inaccessible unless someone in your family is at the top level of government. If you're a worker or in a worker family even glasses are probably almost impossible to get. I know for sure this is totally wrong, because I have lived in 3rd world countries, and I was born in one. You're just imagining stuff.

I visited a few rural cities in the Central African republic ~15 years ago and this situation definitely exists (existed?) there. Your best bet is to try to get care in a monastery, but it's not like they have glasses or anything other than basic medicine.

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#606

Post by [deleted] »

cryptonector wrote: post #521
corobo wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a £50 fine might as well be £50,000- its unpayable, and leads to a sort of doom-spiral of lending to avoid worse consequences. Easily you can end up in unmanageable debt Yup! Bank gave me an overdraft when I was 16. At 37 I'm still in debt connected to that first bit of "free" money. I've never earned above £0, and at this point it's too late to care. They can write me off as a minor loss when I kick it haha

> I've never earned above £0, and at this point it's too late to care. You're a sysadmin and what not -- how can that be?

[deleted]

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#607

Post by Der_Einzige »

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.

If people lived like this the vectrex would have fewer units left alive and no one is making new vector displays anymore.

I for one welcome out capitalist induced pack rat disorders for the elderly as it guarantees that vintage and retro survives.

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#608

Post by terminalshort »

bccdee wrote: post #564
terminalshort wrote: post #538

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sure see a lot of people in category 3

Oh really? Where? How can you tell they're reckless or lazy and not (e.g.) disabled?

It's pretty easy to see when someone spends money like an idiot

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#609

Post by justsomejew »

mattio wrote: post #325

I grew up poor as dirt. My mom has four kids with three dads. Eventually we were a family of six. I think we had about 100 euros a month for food, clothing and recreation. My mom and stepdad did not work one day in their lives (welfare in NL). Right now I’m still recovering. It’s my fifth year making over 150K and I have zero to show for it because I did a poor job managing my finances. To help me (in general, but al…

If you don't mind telling about it, who or what helped you?

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#610

Post by kldg »

neuralRiot wrote: post #398
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spent years getting over the idea of saving some half broken thing because “I might need a part from that later”

As an electronic tech I find myself hoarding discarded devices because sometimes I need some part and ordering means paying shipping and 4 day (if I am lucky) waiting to get a part that costs cents just to probably find out that I need more parts.

I'm fine enough now to retire but get on my hands and knees whenever I drop a tiny surface-mount resistor, which I have reels of tens or hundreds of. If I can't find it after 5 or so minutes, that's when the "what am I doing?" thought finally hits.
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