221–230 of 563 posts
This article is so frustrating. The helplessness and dependence are just sad. Cloth diapers cost less than $1.50 each in a 10-pack. If you are poor enough, you can wash them in a bucket with bar soap. That's what virtually everyone did before washers were invented. I'm saddened that this girl didn't figure this out. I know first-hand, when you're poor and desperate, you figure shit out. Unless, of course, you have a…
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I apologize if it sounded like that - a baby is definitely 16+ hours of work a day if not more, that's why I said that no other job is possible, but I was saying that maybe the person can squeeze in a couple of hours to wash the diapers while the baby is asleep.
My first child screamed whenever she was not on a human for the first six months. She slept, but only on a person.
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I don’t disagree with most of that. The loan shark maths is just one (rather contrived) example of how a person can break out of a particular poverty trap. It’s harder to break out of a poverty trap than it is to live with one, but it’s much easier to stay out of one than it is to live with it. My point is that with the correct effort, people can generally break free of most of the poverty traps they find themselves…
> My point is that with the correct effort, people can generally break free of most of the poverty traps they find themselves in. I find 'correct effort' to rather deceptive term, because part of the problem is defining what that would be (and your example failed as a 'correct' one). Furthermore, I'd say a cursory glance at history shows that what you're saying is not true. Slaves did not just free themselves, the wo…
The correct effort is simply whatever a person can do to make incremental improvements to their lives. It’s going to be different for everybody. Psychologically, part of the reason that poverty traps are so easy to fall into is because people in poverty don’t have the luxury of indulging in much long term decision making. However some opportunity always exists, and finding an exploiting those opportunities is the only way out.
The reason there is any focus on the individual is because you can’t simply subsidize out of poverty. If you want people to get out of poverty and to stay out of poverty, then those people need to take responsibility for their own destiny. Arguably society could do a better job of giving people the tools to do that, but that doesn’t change the dynamics of the problem. The truth is that if I was in that persons shoes, I’d be living a better life than they are. Because I was, and I managed to, and those skills eventually got me completely out of poverty all together.
This article is so frustrating. The helplessness and dependence are just sad. Cloth diapers cost less than $1.50 each in a 10-pack. If you are poor enough, you can wash them in a bucket with bar soap. That's what virtually everyone did before washers were invented. I'm saddened that this girl didn't figure this out. I know first-hand, when you're poor and desperate, you figure shit out. Unless, of course, you have a…
Jesus, your comment and the other replies just straight up reek of privilege/ignorance. What you're suggesting is obviously the pragmatic choice - obviously, if she's poor as shit and can't afford regular diapers, using reusable cloth ones is a great solution. But that's not the fucking point of the article - its $CURRENT_YEAR in the richest country in the world, this absolutely shouldn't be a thing that happens in t…
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Your comment is completely contradictory. You say the OP's comment reeks of privilege/ignorance, but you go ahead and expect government privilege in $CURRENY_YEAR. The OP was commenting that certain people leech and do not want to find a job and help themselves, but rather want more help from the government. I grew up with cloth diapers not because my family was poor, but just simply because it was a better choice fo…
You don't even understand what privilege means, my dude. I expect my government to serve myself and the people, and not a handful of old dudes at the top of the food chain. If you think a government serving its people is a privilege, I think you have a very poor idea of what democracy is (or should be). >...certain people leech, do not want to find a job... This is privilege and propaganda at work right here. Being s…
The word privilege is a common term in thr English language and I'm sure the person you're responding to knows what it means.
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I don't know if the numbers in the comment you're referring to are correct, but let's assume they're close enough and do the math. If I pay $5 every other day for 10 diapers, then I'm paying ~$75/month for 150 diapers. $0.50/diaper, $2.50/day. If I take a pay day loan of $30 for a 200 pack of diapers, then I've just brought a 40 day supply of diapers. $0.15/diaper, $0.75/day. After 16 days I've recouped my original i…
If you had the intelligence to do that calculation, you would have the intelligence to not be in such a desperate situation in the first place.
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Jesus, your comment and the other replies just straight up reek of privilege/ignorance. What you're suggesting is obviously the pragmatic choice - obviously, if she's poor as shit and can't afford regular diapers, using reusable cloth ones is a great solution. But that's not the fucking point of the article - its $CURRENT_YEAR in the richest country in the world, this absolutely shouldn't be a thing that happens in t…
> Do you think that back in the 50s and 60s > when your parents or grandparents were > buying the first mass produced disposable > diapers, they would have expected 60 years > later people would be forced to go back to > washable cloth diapers because they couldn't > afford regular diapers? I tried looking up the real price of diapers since the 50s until modern day, and the only thing I could find suggests that this…
I'm going to regret sticking my head over the parapet on this one but ...
You're making the argument that it's great that diapers are a quarter of the price that they were, and isn't that great. But we're speaking in the context of how the poor can't even afford them at that price.
I've no stake in this argument. The dynamic of poverty and privilege is a topic that demands robust discussion. But I couldn't let such an obvious contradiction slip by ...
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Okay, real talk. My time, according to society, is worth $300ish per hour. Hers is probably worth $10 an hour. I didn't do anything special to earn this and I'm a very lazy person. I would much rather have people like me pay more taxes and this lady not have to spend her whole day cleaning diapers.
You and I both. How many of us would have to chip in another $10-$20 in taxes to cover those without, so a parent and his/her children can take a shit and dispose of it in a way that meats their commitments as appropriate?
If I saw this woman, and knew she couldn't get the money to buy diapers, I'd have no problem giving her the money in a transaction that went from me to her and done.
Getting the government involved is asking for more trouble. They'd need diaper inspectors, and negotiate a no bid diaper contract. Half the money would be lost, or spent on something other than diapers, and it would probably be inconvenient for her to pick up the government issue diapers.