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Being poor vs. being broke

blog.ctms.me

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Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#21

Post by lbrito »

The geographic variation on the semantics of poverty always amaze me.

Poverty and having a credit card, a van, and a house to live in. No matter how maxed out or broken all of those are, having them automatically means you are not poor in most of the world's point of view.

Not to say that the struggles aren't real or that we shouldn't empathize, of course. Just that what strikes me most about these kinds of posts is how the semantics simply implode if you expand your context window just a bit, looking at a broader perspective country-wise.

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#22

Post by j16sdiz »

rwmj wrote: post #4

I feel like this is an AI summary of https://residentcontrarian.substack.com/p/on-the-experience-... ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26300139 )

Not an summary, I think.

TFA said something cancel Netflix as "advice for getting through being broke". This is not in the "original" article you linked.

Could be AI (I honestly don't know), but it is not a "summary".

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#23

Post by renewiltord »

Sure. That’s the theory. Then I read the book Evicted and I understood. One of the people gets a small windfall. Enough to stop the treadmill. What she does is buy something nice for herself because she “deserves a treat”.

Also the sums of money here are humongous. Someone is net -$40k? They need $40k more per year to not be poor? That is the British median income. So this shortfall in money a person needs to be not poor in the US is what half of the people in the UK live under, total.

Heck even in Germany that’s the 40th percentile or so.

This shows how poor Europeans are compared to Americans. Some half of them are in this comparative state of misery.

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#24

Post by rwmj »

j16sdiz wrote: post #22
rwmj wrote: post #4

I feel like this is an AI summary of https://residentcontrarian.substack.com/p/on-the-experience-... ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26300139 )

Not an summary, I think. TFA said something cancel Netflix as "advice for getting through being broke". This is not in the "original" article you linked. Could be AI (I honestly don't know), but it is not a "summary".

Well the other article is 10 times better, so everyone should go read that one instead :-)

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#25

Post by [deleted] »

lbrito wrote: post #21

The geographic variation on the semantics of poverty always amaze me. Poverty and having a credit card, a van, and a house to live in. No matter how maxed out or broken all of those are, having them automatically means you are not poor in most of the world's point of view. Not to say that the struggles aren't real or that we shouldn't empathize, of course. Just that what strikes me most about these kinds of posts is…

[deleted]

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#26

Post by energy123 »

dukeofdoom wrote: post #7

It's also owning lower quality goods, that plague you by breaking all the time. So the maintenance cost (time and energy) is quite high. It's almost better not to have things when you're poor, because the things you have are just a big headache. I think it's also that increasingly working people are living in old houses that were never built properly, and now have lots of problems. And even new things you buy, are ju…

I've heard it described that being poor is expensive. The poorer you are the more expensive it is. Being poor in a poor country is the most expensive. You can't just buy coffee, you can only afford a sachet of coffee. So per gram you're paying double. You can't afford medical care, so the condition gets worse and thus more expensive to do something about. You're in debt most of the time, which is expensive. You have to travel for work, again expensive. You rent, expensive. It must be awful.

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#27

Post by tome »

cluckindan wrote: post #18
rsyring wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read every word of the article and the about page.

Then why did you present fallacious arguments which were already discussed over several paragraphs?

Perhaps you could elaborate, because I read the article and the About page too, and I don't understand what you're getting at.

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#28

Post by forgotoldacc »

lbrito wrote: post #21

The geographic variation on the semantics of poverty always amaze me. Poverty and having a credit card, a van, and a house to live in. No matter how maxed out or broken all of those are, having them automatically means you are not poor in most of the world's point of view. Not to say that the struggles aren't real or that we shouldn't empathize, of course. Just that what strikes me most about these kinds of posts is…

There are countries where you can have none of those, but still visit a doctor and not worry about violent crime. The dynamics vary.

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#29

Post by wat10000 »

rsyring wrote: post #2

https://blog.ctms.me/about/ It would appear from the about page and the article that he has the requisite skills to earn an income that should move him out of the "poor" category: - auto mechanic - digital tech - landscaping I'm not trying to dismiss the difficult realities associated with being poor. But if you have the skills to make more money and bring your family out of the "poor" category, why wouldn't you do t…

I'm pretty sure the author's membership in the "poor" category is in the past tense.

Re: Being poor vs. being broke

#30

Post by aduwah »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #11

Very true but I also think that being poor is a mindset to change. I've known of people that would couch surf but they were never poor. We knew, they knew, that at anytime they could turn it around, and they did. They wanted to do things that were not the norm so they chose not to follow society's norms so they lacked money and they lived day to day. Once they changed their mind set they were able to work their way t…

I can give you an example. Single divorced mother with two kids. Working in social care for minimal wage, often earning lower amounts than the people she cares for. There are no savings, no relatives to help. Job change is an uncertainty that could introduce homelessness for the whole family if it doesn't work out. Not many options there. Now if you move this scenario out of rich countries it will get even worse
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