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Being poor changes your thinking about everything

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Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#51

Post by unono »

The root cause of poverty is the incompetent government education system - The Teacher's Union. Most public school teachers I've come across have contempt for the businessmen (people who create the wealth) and for poor people (teachers tend to be limousine liberals).

The first country or state to disband the current teaching system and replace with a competitive system will skyrocket to success. This is a no-brainer, but it's so to difficult implement because there's so many of the 'government handout' teachers voting they swamp the rest of us.

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#52

Post by jpau »

teddyh wrote: post #45
jpau wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having multiple people on the lease is not a strange practice in Australia; it's normal and not as you described. When signing the lease you're not signing for a room, you're signing responsibility for the rent and condition of the whole house/unit (excluding responsibilities remaining with the landlord, e.g. maintenance). Each of your housemates are too. Rents are expensive . It makes no financial sense to live by y…

Interesting. I would guess that the general economics have forced the landlords to accept and perhaps even promote this scheme, as it's the only was they can find a market for their services. I wonder if this acceptance will keep once the economics changes?

I think you have it the wrong way around - it's not a demand-driven arrangement, but a supply-driven one; landlords prefer to have more than one person responsible for the lease, provided the tenants have sound integrity.

It's like standing on one leg; if that leg crumbles, you will fall and land hard. But if you have two legs, one leg can crumble and the other gives you enough time for you to land gently. If you... magically had a third leg (and weren't standing with them in a triangle?), you might not even notice that one leg stopped working.

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#53

Post by [deleted] »

vacri wrote: post #42
teddyh wrote: post #2

I'm very much reminded of these: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-nobody-tells-you-about-... http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-stupidest-habits-you-devel... http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-things-politicians-will-never-... Especially the last one. EDIT: Fixed last link

These were, without a doubt, the best articles that Cracked has put forth. I've never been in poverty, but I've seen it from a near distance. I've been poor, but if push came to shove, I always had a middle-class mother I could move back to. That's a 'safety net' that many in poverty simply do not have. And so it annoys the shit out of me that when a friend in finance got a $10k raise, all she could talk about was "b…

[deleted]

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#54

Post by stephengillie »

teddyh wrote: post #30
Afton wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Canada, as a poor student/underemployed person, I lived in mansions with 6-10 friends. Those things are •very• hard to rent out. The neighbors hated us though ( we were young, drove crappy cars, sometimes had loud parties, and just generally made a mockery of the rich neighborhood we lived in. The absentee landlords were just parking there money in property, so were quite happy with us. Things might be different i…

I think you lucked out and found “absentee landlords”. I can't see these things being commonly accepted practice among landlords — as you say, your neighbors hated you and you were far from the norm in the area. But just because you lucked out doesn't mean that it's just as easy for someone else, in another area. To actually create something like this on purpose, somewhere close to where you happen to have gotten a g…

This is actually common in college towns. In Seattle, it's very common in the University district, but almost unheard-of outside that neighborhood.

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#55

Post by angersock »

narrator wrote: post #10
teddyh wrote: post #2

I'm very much reminded of these: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-nobody-tells-you-about-... http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-stupidest-habits-you-devel... http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-things-politicians-will-never-... Especially the last one. EDIT: Fixed last link

What I keep thinking when I read these is if poor one should live with a large number of roommates you trust and share expenses and pitch in to help each other in an emergency. This in how people survive in developing countries. Something has collapsed in America though and everyone HAS to live by themselves and can't seem to trust anybody else.

So, I've done some flavor of this for the past several years.

To make it work, houses are better than apartments. More than 4 people is too much, and you really need to trust and respect the other folks you live with.

You also need to be able to not sweat the little things--having people ask if they need to pick up an extra X when they go to the grocery store is handy. Living close to a grocery store (within walking distance) is even handier.

Also, you need to not be messy party folks--your landlord is much more likely to give you an easy time if they don't see evidence of this. Talk to your landlord semi-frequently to touch base and let them be secure in their investment.

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#56

Post by teddyh »

jpau wrote: post #52
teddyh wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I would guess that the general economics have forced the landlords to accept and perhaps even promote this scheme, as it's the only was they can find a market for their services. I wonder if this acceptance will keep once the economics changes?

I think you have it the wrong way around - it's not a demand-driven arrangement, but a supply-driven one; landlords prefer to have more than one person responsible for the lease, provided the tenants have sound integrity. It's like standing on one leg; if that leg crumbles, you will fall and land hard. But if you have two legs, one leg can crumble and the other gives you enough time for you to land gently. If you...…

If that's the case, why hasn't this naturally occured everywhere? Why only in Australia and for students in university towns?

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#57

Post by prostoalex »

narrator wrote: post #10
teddyh wrote: post #2

I'm very much reminded of these: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-nobody-tells-you-about-... http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-stupidest-habits-you-devel... http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-things-politicians-will-never-... Especially the last one. EDIT: Fixed last link

What I keep thinking when I read these is if poor one should live with a large number of roommates you trust and share expenses and pitch in to help each other in an emergency. This in how people survive in developing countries. Something has collapsed in America though and everyone HAS to live by themselves and can't seem to trust anybody else.

US government tried to experiment with Soviet-style high density housing in the 1950s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruitt%E2%80%93Igoe

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#58

Post by angersock »

wolfgke wrote: post #13
teddyh wrote: post #2

I'm very much reminded of these: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-nobody-tells-you-about-... http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-stupidest-habits-you-devel... http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-things-politicians-will-never-... Especially the last one. EDIT: Fixed last link

Having read these articles, there's one thing that I don't appreciate: in these articles kids of poor people are mentioned. Why in the hell are these people "producing" children, if they aren't 100% certain that they'll be able to support them for the years until they are old enough to stand on their own feet? Strokes of fate that lead to poverty are one side, but the side is reproding if you are poor: I consider thi…

Well, once you can't afford cable or 'net access, your recreational activities are limited.

More seriously, you never 'know' that you'll be perfectly economically steady and care-free for the 18+ years required to raise a child to middle-class American standards until that time has passed--at which point you probably shouldn't be reproducing anyways due to age-related defects.

Unless you are talking about "Hey, I'm in a homeless shelter, lemme get knocked up/knock up because why not", you paint in too broad strokes.

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#59

Post by Raphmedia »

derleth wrote: post #46
Retric wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you are poor condoms are fucking expencive and don't work long term. There is a reason people sell cheap 2l soda despite the fact a 2l bottle coke is 'Realy Cheap' to 95+% of HN posters.

I thought planned parenthood type places gave condoms away.

If you love cheap condoms, sure. Great for a one night, but not something you would want to use daily...

Re: Being poor changes your thinking about everything

#60

Post by mattmanser »

teddyh wrote: post #2

I'm very much reminded of these: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-nobody-tells-you-about-... http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-stupidest-habits-you-devel... http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-things-politicians-will-never-... Especially the last one. EDIT: Fixed last link

One of the articles is making a massive deal about 'afford[ing] those grocery trips' and 'burning shitloads of gas'.

As someone who comes from a country where 'gas' is a shit load more expensive than the US because of tax I call utter bullshit. It costs about 20-40p to go to a supermarket, or at most a dollar in your US terms. Over here there's also a massive competition war going on at the moment between Tesco & Sainsbury's for local convenience stores which have a good percentage of your normal weekly shop if you were buying everything fresh.

I suspect that mom just preferred to serve up frozen shit. And bullshit again on stuff like TV dinners being cheaper than other foods, they're certainly not over here in the UK. A simple chilli or bolognese is much cheaper if you buy the raw ingredients than any processed foods.

I suspect the problem's more that Mom just doesn't know how to cook.

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