111–120 of 126 posts
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> Can anyone source articles that fit my specific viewpoint instead of the well sourced article that disagrees with my viewpoint? Is that what you're going for?
No; the above article is well-sourced but the comments heavily disagree with it. I'd like for these comments to cite an equally sourced article so I, an undecided reader, can decide for myself what I find more compelling.
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Cash is appealing because it's "cheap" and scalable. It's a cold, clinical approach that lets "leaders" feel good and appeals to people at first glance but doesn't actually solve problems. The things that will change people, families, and cities require true leadership, mentoring, holding people accountable, and friendship. It requires deep personal investment in people and neighborhoods and can't be done from an off…
Do you think there's anything at all that government can do that would help?
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It's really amazing to see the mental gymnastics going on here to try and paint the people born into poverty as those with a broken culture, no ambition and being a net drain on society. I was one of those people born into poverty. Your post is remarkably ignorant of the circumstances we faced and dealt with, and why cheap entertainment is used as an escape from the crushing levels of bullshit we had to deal with on…
I don't think your response is fair. Rather, I think you are focused on the feeling of offense and resentment for what you see as a condescending attitude from the parent commenter. But, if as you say, you came from poverty and broke away, surely you can look at the situation objectively and acknowledge that escapism often leads to negative feedback loops in and of itself, and that their commentary on culture is accu…
It's the exact same 'those dirty poors are poor because they're lazy' nonsense I've heard over and over again just dressed up slightly. The emotional context is that he's outright calling those people a drain on society.
And when I look back on poverty and escapism, for a lot of people it's the one thing giving them a temporary out from the crushing depression of realizing that you're trapped in a situation that you'll likely never escape. I refuse to accept their commentary as any sort of objective analysis because it reeks of someone passing judgment on something they have never experienced.
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I don't think your response is fair. Rather, I think you are focused on the feeling of offense and resentment for what you see as a condescending attitude from the parent commenter. But, if as you say, you came from poverty and broke away, surely you can look at the situation objectively and acknowledge that escapism often leads to negative feedback loops in and of itself, and that their commentary on culture is accu…
I think my response is plenty fair, considering one of the core aspects of his argument in paragraph 3 is equating people in poverty to those without drive, ambition, people that sink into escapism which is the reason why they're in poverty (hence the rotten culture). It's the exact same 'those dirty poors are poor because they're lazy' nonsense I've heard over and over again just dressed up slightly. The emotional c…
But that is also not the way out, not from a rational perspective. We have to wrangle with the fact that the rationally best actions someone in poverty can take with what little money they have, especially large lump sums like tax returns, is not the way most people behave because human beings are emotional creatures. I don't think it requires looking down upon the poor to acknowledge that their choices are driven by internal factors (mental health, despair) as well as external cultural factors (consumerism, social status among the poor being driven by luxury brands, et al).
I'm just as guilty of practicing escapism as anyone else when I was in poor circumstances, it was just a random chance my escapism was into books which in turn helped increase my knowledge and ability to converse intelligently, rather than into lottery tickets, junk food, and entertainment. But it was still a form of escapism, and it was driven by many of the same factors. Books were more valuable in the long-term (knowledge, skills), and they were less costly in the short-term (used market, libraries), and in the end it helped provide me a way out.
While my family wasn't wealthy and after leaving home I was even more poor for awhile, I came out of a culture that emphasized reading, literacy, and learning and used the television only for public broadcasting/documentaries. That's just as cultural as other families who emphasize social hierarchies/machismo, strength/being hard, and taking what you want, and uses television for escapism and entertainment. Saying something is cultural isn't an insult, it's an observation. Whether it started that way is irrelevant, it's cultural now that generations have gone by.
I'd much rather see a conversation that tries to understand how we can break the cycle of poverty by helping people make better more rational choices and using forms of escapism that lead to positive outcomes instead of those that reinforce negative feedback loops. I think offense-taking and trying to find the worst possible interpretation of someone making a relevant observation isn't going to solve the problem.
Maybe it's a touchy point of its own with me, but it seems so many of the really serious problems of our modern life can't be discussed in anything approaching an objective manner because there's always someone who wants to use it as an opportunity to take offense, rather than to understand and empathize, and return with something that changes the perspective of the person by creating empathy for themselves. Offense-taking doesn't build empathy, it just shuts down conversation.
This reminds me of a great Matt Levine article from last year where he discusses his rules for personal finance and mocks the usual cliche advice. """ The important rules of personal finance are: 1. Make a lot of money. (This one is key!) 2. Spend less than you make. 3. Don’t invest in scams. Meanwhile most actually available personal finance advice seems to come down to these considerably less helpful teachings 2 :…
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> These kids need mentors more than they need cash. They need adults they can emulate who can help them break free from the viscious cycle. A father, perhaps?
those kids should have had the good sense to be born of a father that sticks around /s
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Even if it was an insane amount of cash, it'd quickly disappear and end up in the same position or worse. Look at the outcomes of lottery winners and others who come into a sudden windfall. Even when it's not sudden, you have clogs to clogs in 3 generations. I think one of the biggest impacts we could make is to teach financial literacy in school, to everyone. Form and reinforce good habits early on. Demonstrate the…
I have shown my children my bank account quite early (which is not very usual on France where we are very secretive about money) so that - they know they are financially safe (everyone is taking about money disasters, I wanted to lower their stress) - they realize that money comes from somewhere (salary) and goes to many places (tax, food, internet,...). This made them think about spending and fortunately we live in…
This article cites several research studies as well as the results of the casino in North Carolina and is a great read - and I hope people read it, digest it, and then comment (rather than comment based on the title). This is actually what presidential candidate Andrew Yang is trying to change. He calls this the "Scarcity mindset" and it doesn't just affect poor decisions, but also inability to think about things lik…
> Poverty is not a lack of character – it’s a lack of cash. No. Poverty is a lack of education and, more importantly, mentorship. I am battling this right now with my next door neighbors, who use HOC, a Maryland social service that basically puts poor people in middle class neighborhoods by subsidizing rent. My neighbors have money. They spend it extremely poorly. It's a single mom with 2 kids. Both kids have iPhones…
The idea is that they’ll find mentors in a middle class neighborhood. Attacking the character of suboptimal decision makers isn’t fair. They have lives and they have every right to decide how they live it. At the same time, they’re beholden to the economic forces that govern everyday life. Thinking back at my childhood, my parents gave me a computer, a $300 baseball glove, an N64...etc despite not being able to affor…
To be clear, I absolutely agree with your point, just not the method of attempting to achieve it.
a. The layers of beliefs that build on each other that lead to amplified productivity, wealth, success, popularity and such.
b. that poverty isn't an innate quality or fate, but a prison of the mind most people get attached to and will defend. They can escape it if they so choose.
a.)
1. Locus-of-control - Poor people exist in world where they are made to feel like criminals and everything is a zero sum game. So, it doesn't seem to matter about saving a dollar here or a dollar there. (External locus-of-control/learned helplessness). Contrast this with people who make a game, and get a thrill, out of buying something on closeout and getting to use a coupon on top of it. Costco: it's hard to get a poverty-oriented person excited about saving money at Costco
2. Saving - People who are poor don't choose to have high Marginal Propensity to Consume (MPC), they have unmet needs and emergencies all of the time.
3. Investing and ownership - People who don't have any savings and don't have internal locus-of-control can't conceive on multiplying money with money, so they can't really build balance sheet affluence. And if workers were rational, they would consider what profits they were giving away to their employers for a pittance, and take collective action to improve their lot or form another company (co-op's/worked-owned enterprises). Also, people in a poverty-mindset will often believe that lottery tickets, celebrity or special talents (magical thinking) are their "way out."
b.) Poverty isn't strictly income or balance sheet, it begins with either elements of virtuous-cycle or self-defeating, vicious-cycle attitudes. When people believe a certain way or lack confidence, they continually sabotage themselves with every choice and missed opportunity in live.
On the flip-side, continued wealth is never assured: people can convince themselves they are invincible, have infinite money and/or otherwise sabotage their cash cows like pissing-off their customers.