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The difference between ‘broke’ and ‘poor’

theguardian.com

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

#221

Post by scarface74 »

manfredo wrote: post #216
scarface74 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 million workers lost their employer provided health insurance following the ACA. Now they're paying for their insurance out of pocket. Granted their employers were paying their premiums, but from the person's perspective they went down from paying little or nothing to paying for all their insurance on their own. https://www.factcheck.org/2014/04/millions-lost-insurance/ This is assuming that the subsidy covers the…

The Economist reported 2 million employer healthcare plans killed off: https://www.economist.com/united-states/2016/09/10/encumbere... Furthermore, I would suggest reading your sources in greater detail before posting them. The factcheck.org article does not deny the claim that millions lost their insurance through their employers. From the article: > It’s true that insurance companies discontinued health plans that…

Not every retiree is over 65. And besides, Medicare is getting very expensive, too:

How many retirees do you really think there are on individual coverage plans?

Besides that if you are part of a group insurance plan, they aren’t part of your group, or your risk pool.

Exactly. Now that the affordable care act regulated insurance companies ability to determine patients, higher risk people are joining and having their healthcare subsidized by the other plan members.

Do you really think that there are that many higher risk people who can afford to be on the exchange? And once again, they are not part of your pool if you are under a group plan. If they are part of your group plan, they would have been eligible for the same prices before the ACA.

Now that companies are forced to charge the same rates, there's nothing stopping people from not buying any health insurance (or very cheap health insurance) until they start having high medical costs and then joining an insurance plan to have their costs born by the other customers. People are smart. If they can have their cake and eat it too by passing their costs off to other people, they're going to do it.

If only the people who came up with the ACA had “mandated” health insurance or force them to pay a penalty. Oh wait! They did...

Not every retiree is over 65. And besides, Medicare is getting very expensive, too:

And that had nothing to do with the ACA.

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

#222

Post by chewz »

agumonkey wrote: post #220
chewz wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From anthropological research people in subsistence farming societies do not tend to accumulate. If there is surplus (which is mainly crops) it is put towards accumulating social capital (fiesta, wedding, social gathering, gifts to neighbors and family). The safety network is not accumulated capital but social relations (social capital). In urban societies relations become more money based and suddenly people tend to…

Pretty amazing (since it confirms my own ideas ;) do you have name or books to read about it ?

If you just google for Social Capital Theory you will find enough of articles that you might find interesting or not.

Personally I have been inspired by 2nd hand source - I had been reading historical book on Afganistan (very good book but I can't find it at the moment). At the same time I had been living in provincial Sumatra and experiencing myself something similar (It is something that makes living in Indonesia a joy despite other shortcomings).

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

#223

Post by alwillis »

AlexTWithBeard wrote: post #219
alwillis wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that students of poor families aren’t in good school systems and often don’t get adequate preparation for college, especially for majoring in STEM.

Having a STEM degree is not the only alternative to poverty. A guy repairing my dryer has charged $350 for one hour. I'm sure some of it went towards spare parts and such, but even $50 bucks an hour is a pretty decent income.

Having a STEM degree is not the only alternative to poverty.

I didn’t suggest that having a STEM degree was the only way out of poverty. My point: if poor students wanted to get STEM degrees, they often don’t have the high school preparation to do so and their families can’t afford the tutors, test prep courses and academic coaches affluent families have access to.

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

#225

Post by emily001 »

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

#226

Post by cableshaft »

ddebernardy wrote: post #163
cableshaft wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your last paragraph is spot on. I definitely had a "I'm too poor" mentality for most of my 20s (I did some similar things to the author of the piece, but without the kids), and that mindset was definitely a limiting factor in my life. I was always too poor to do anything I wanted to do. I even considered myself too poor to date anyone, so I just didn't. Now that I'm in my 30s looking back, and even though I'm more fi…

Tip if I may: don't get too comfy. Life can come crashing down on you sometimes, and it can do so very fast. My own life lesson has been that you're poor and broke (whether aware of it or not) until you're financially retired.

I definitely don't consider myself financially secure, not by a long shot. I'm still a lot closer to the poor end of things than I feel comfortable with, especially since I know bad things could be right around the corner.

It's easy to not have it at the forefront of your mind though, and be a little too easy with money. My girlfriend is pretty bad about it also, and I've been a lot more loose with my money since dating her than I was when I was single. But I'm also to blame, we just enable each other to have bad behavior.

I do save a decent amount and don't touch that, though, we just could be doing better. I'm not saving quite as much as recommended, and nowhere near the almost 50% of wages that some people here claim to do.

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

#227

Post by ensignavenger »

alwillis wrote: post #217
ensignavenger wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure some, if not most, of those colleges have scholarships that are "need based". And even if they don't, there is the Pell Grant.

Except that students of poor families aren’t in good school systems and often don’t get adequate preparation for college, especially for majoring in STEM.

Thats a different problem, and it is a blanket statement that isn't true everywhere.

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

#228

Post by themacguffinman »

fooker wrote: post #209
themacguffinman wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your credit score is a lot more straightforward and reliable than something like social popularity.

See what China is doing with the concept.

That's not the same thing. China has some kind of scoring system, but it's much more totalitarian and popularity based than the credit score you were referring to in the US and other Western countries which is fairly straightforward. It's not helpful to conflate the two.

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

#229

Post by thedaemon »

hopler wrote: post #41
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flip side, I much more fear poverty with a family than without. I didn’t need much to make it as a single person, but now I have responsibilities.

You are referring to having children, which is only one example of having family.

No, they were referring to the difference between having to support yourself versus the responsibility towards having to support your family. This could be their grandmother. It could be their children. It could be their pack of dogs. It doesn't matter, the point is singular vs multiple responsibilities of basic necessities.

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

#230

Post by HelloFellowDevs »

hackermailman wrote: post #93
HelloFellowDevs wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I definitely think it's an NYC thing too, the COL is pretty crazy here. Rent/Metro definitely cuts into my discretionary spending. All of my friends are in the same boat, we're just all young 20 somethings who are all cash poor paying student loans.

If there's a group of you try pooling your money together to do bulk grocery buying. I used to do this with my equally poor neighbors when I was barely scratching a living. Often we could come up with $120 each and buy enough staples to last the entire month, of quality food direct from farms and wholesalers and other things, like towells, socks, ect. I probably would have been forced to live off beans and rice other…

Thanks I'll definitely look into that, but I think I might be on my way out of the city. I love it but I'll have to come back when I'd have the money to enjoy it.
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