Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The difference between ‘broke’ and ‘poor’

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 234 posts

Re: The difference between ‘broke’ and ‘poor’

#191

Post by FiddlyPack »

stillbourne wrote: post #189

I came up from poverty and its a trap. I grew up in a trailer park with parents that didn't care how well I did in school, who I hung out with, what I did away from home, where I was most of the time or when I came back. They treated me like a burden not a part of the family. At least not the TV families I saw growing up. Started smoking with the neighbor kids when I was 15, started drinking shortly after. There were…

Easier to go down than up, and the people on your level will often try to make you feel bad for trying to move up and out. Good on you for escaping the trap. Props to your uncle for giving you tools to do it, hardass though he was.

Re: The difference between ‘broke’ and ‘poor’

#192

Post by conanbatt »

rdiddly wrote: post #121

I've been where this author has: selling off stuff and wondering how to pay rent, waiting in line for free food, donating blood plasma for $15, walking everywhere because it's cheaper than the bus, getting arrested for not paying child support. Nonetheless apparently I had it ass-backwards in my head: rather than "poor" I mostly still considered myself what this author would call "broke" the whole time. Maybe it was…

> I think what I'm saying is that in some way, "poor" is in your mind, and as soon as you consider yourself poor, you are poor

It is very well known that people's perceptions of their economic status is well off. Including a very strong "reverse-into-the-median" effect on who is middle class or not.

I personally quite enjoy finding evidence that I'm poorer than I think I am, but I'm deep into the (upper?)middle class to that being a stressful realization.

Re: The difference between ‘broke’ and ‘poor’

#193

Post by testpostpls »

loblollyboy wrote: post #110
xeromal wrote: post #2

Poverty especially sucks when you're all alone like it seems this person was. Where I grew up, most of the people were poor, but we had rich lives for the most part. Lots of family dinners and outings. The people with more would let you take the leftovers home. You can't really train this and we all definitely need a social safety net, but I do think our closed off society prevents us from helping each other too.

Exactly - I’m from upper middle class and while this meant I was lucky enough to go back home when unemployed, all my peers were just career oriented and it’s very lonely to be ‘a loser’ - I recently moved in w some old coworkers/friends in a diff city who are from a diff socioeconomic background. At first they just let me stay in the apt, now I make more than them (though not a lot). We share like family and look af…

Money is often used as a tool to control others.

Re: The difference between ‘broke’ and ‘poor’

#194

Post by Ar-Curunir »

AlexTWithBeard wrote: post #123
coldtea wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're so well paid that you don't get tax breaks, and you are forced to help poor people through taxes and insurance premiums? Sounds like a good situation to be in...

It's not helping the poor per se that makes many people uncomfortable: no sane person will share the "poor must die of hunger" attitude. It's that we help only the poor. Look, I pay taxes. Poor people don't. Fine. I get it. But they do get free medical insurance, I don't. They get free college, I don't. All I get back are reminders about "straight white men privilege". That's not fair. Nobody likes paying taxes. But…

Rich people don't need help getting into college: they just bribe their way in.

Re: The difference between ‘broke’ and ‘poor’

#195

Post by dgzl »

rdiddly wrote: post #121

I've been where this author has: selling off stuff and wondering how to pay rent, waiting in line for free food, donating blood plasma for $15, walking everywhere because it's cheaper than the bus, getting arrested for not paying child support. Nonetheless apparently I had it ass-backwards in my head: rather than "poor" I mostly still considered myself what this author would call "broke" the whole time. Maybe it was…

> Regardless, poor and rich are relative terms; it's a continuum. You can never be "poor" and you can never be "rich." You can only be poorER, or richER, than somebody else. But there will still always be someone else poorER or richER than you.

I say the same thing about the words 'liberal' and 'conservative'. Nobody is just one or the other, and everybody is both. Life is too nuanced to quantify like that.

Re: The difference between ‘broke’ and ‘poor’

#196

Post by tfehring »

coldtea wrote: post #59
malvosenior wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why the ACA (Obamacare) was extra bad (for me and others in my situation). Not only do I have to subsidize the poor through taxes but now I have to subsidize higher risk individuals through my own increased premiums. I also make enough money to get zero tax breaks on any of it and the "marketplace" has removed all competition and downward price pressure. EDIT: People seem to think I'm being flippant or cruel…

You're so well paid that you don't get tax breaks, and you are forced to help poor people through taxes and insurance premiums? Sounds like a good situation to be in...

The income threshold to no longer qualify for premium subsidies through the ACA is ~$48.5k/year for an individual, pre-tax. That's a pretty good income in some areas, but it would be tough to afford ~$500/month for insurance premiums if you're living on $3k/month of take-home income in a high cost of living area.

Re: The difference between ‘broke’ and ‘poor’

#197

Post by nojvek »

durge wrote: post #173
mabbo wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The smug Canadian "well, we don't have these problems here " look on my face dropped into a shocked one when I read that she lives in the same city as me. Probably one of my neighbors. Going to go make a donation to North York Harvest now. Seems like I don't understand poverty enough to say that it's not needed.

I lived in Vancouver, BC for three years having moved from Ames, Iowa. It was my first longish-term experience in a big city in which poor people are 'atomized' by their inability to make due in their current circumstances.The USA and Canada are big places, and I think that problems are more regional (varying widely intrastate/intraprovince) than the huge nets we draw around nation-states. My only takeaway from Van a…

I walked near East Hastings everyday in Vancouver. Most people were friendly, even poor ones. Not sure what they saw on my face, I’d get drug offers all the time (probably eye contact and a smile). I used to politely decline and they left me alone.

This was different to my life in Australia. I was mugged and beaten a couple of times in Parramatta, NSW.

Post reply on HN