“Poor people don’t plan long-term. We’ll just get our hearts broken”

> And no, a cell phone is not mandatory. I lived without it for years.

You get very few job interviews if you don't have a phone or internet connection (which your phone can help you with).

> If you are in an area requireing a car, move in another area.

Yeah, why doesn't everyone just pack up and move to a strange city with no guarantee of a job - if you can even find one with a better transit system (if you have money for that transit system in the first place) or a bike (if you have money for a bike) or walking (if your job prospects are good enough that you can walk to your job - _if_ you can walk in the first place).

> And no, accidental kids are not a good excuse when you got condom, pills, emergency pills and eventually abvortion. My GF had an abvortion once. It was terrible. Still better than having a family in distress.

Ignoring what happens to people that had kids before they had any problems... Because we don't also have a reproductive health crisis with Republicans trying to do away with abortions and very, very expensive condoms, pills, and emergency pills? Do you know how much that costs? The time? The actual money? Plan B is around $50. Pills (if they even work for you, which they don't for many women) can skyrocket even with insurance - and often they require a doctor's visit too which costs even more. Condoms? Free if you can find a place that has them for free, which is the difficult part. Abortion? Don't even get me started on the timing and money required for that.

Yes, people are responsible for their debts. That doesn't mean we treat them like shit, and that doesn't mean we can't have some kind of safety net/help for them. Everyone fucks up at some point or another, or shit happens. It's just easier for more privileged people to deal with that without losing everything they have.

> I've seen plenty people having money problems, even caused by health problems or accidents. The ones to get out of it are the ones that stop spending in materials everybody else claim are mandatory untill they get better.

This may be a very American problem, but hahahaha. Have you tried going without anything but the bare minimum to pay off $xx,xxx in medical bills - if you're lucky - after negotiating it down? One single relatively minor health problem/accident - or a major one with decent insurance - might be doable. Good luck with anything else though.

My middle class father is probably currently googling to figure out how to divorce my mother because his medical bills have risen in the past year despite being on Medicare+the best supplemental insurance on the market. Chew on that. What now, staying with his caring partner of decades and leaving her, me+my partner, and future grandkids an inheritance that isn't in the negatives is a privilege now? We as a society won't be better off continuing this kind of bullshit.

Socio-economic mobility in the united states is low, and falling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socio-economic_mobility_in_the_...

Or read Peter Gosselin's book _High Wire_ http://www.amazon.com/High-Wire-Precarious-Financial-America...

The thesis is that what we've seen over the last 30 years -- from pensions, to unemployment, to education -- is a broad shifting of who bears risk from the government/populace as a whole to individuals.

And this cuts both ways; I definitely know harvard legacy admits who sure as hell didn't get there on merit. And a startup founder who could start his ad company because his parents could loan him $500k without it being a financial crisis if they didn't get it back, and who used his company to run advertising for their chain of auto dealerships. So it's obviously quite possible to start a company without personal wealth, or familial wealth, but it's a hell of a lot easier with it. See, also, eg Bill Gates.

You also probably don't have to worry about getting sick or injured (health insurance and sick leave are basically assumed in most careers that pay >$100k/year), getting access to money (whether savings or credit) for emergencies, or being able to support a loved one when they have problems.

There's nothing "glamorous" about scraping by month to month, working an hourly job with no benefits or paid leave, or having to lie to get access to social services to support your family. It might not be as bad as living in medieval-era poverty, but it's still miles away from your six-figure professional lifestyle.

Life can be (and often is!) fine day-to-day when you're poor, but the complete lack of an effective safety net means the difference between "doing okay" and "living on the street with no options" is razor-thin.