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How to live on $432 a month in America

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Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#551

Post by AngryData »

potato3732842 wrote: post #181
skyyler wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Just break the law, it'll be fine" Great financial advice happening on the orangesite. Really good stuff.

Ironically, I think this is a "blind squirrel finds a nut" situation. When you're at the absolute bottom, you're not gonna make ends meet by playing by the rule and the enforcers generally leave you alone because you can't get blood from a stone. So for the people living on $400/mo running an unlicensed tamale stand or parting out cars or breeding pitbulls or whatever isn't as risky as it would be for someone making…

In my experience law enforcement in rural areas generally are squeezing stones for blood, you think the local cops or judge are going to be living on $20,000 a year? No. And where do they get the money? By extorting poor people that live in the area. Oh you literally can't afford their fines? Well then you can spend the next month or two in jail, now having a criminal record, likely losing your job, and when you are released owe the courts and jail a few thousand dollars on top of all that for the mandatory minimum court and jail fees which will cost just as much as the previous fine you couldn't pay and got sent to jail for.

Sure you might get lucky if you keep your head low, but maybe you won't get lucky and you lose the gamble and are put in a WAY worse situation.

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#553

Post by cozzyd »

bombcar wrote: post #478
cozzyd wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the distance, but hostile roads with no safe crossings.

My admittedly unscientific survey of small Midwestern towns with Walmarts (that are NOT suburbs!) is that you can walk to the Walmart on sidewalks. At most, you have half a block to the nearest sidewalk, or have to cross the street. Some of the middling-old sections only have one sidewalk. The oldest have them on both sides of the street, and the newest developments have them also, usually.

The two smallish towns I've spent significant time in (Tomah WI and Palestine TX) both have difficult to walk to Walmarts. But glad to hear it's not universal!

I see from Google maps that here in Illinois the situation seems to be a bit better... (E.g. Morris, Rantoul and even Du Quoin). Du Quoin seems very inexpensive and seems like it would make a better argument than somewhere truly rural (it even has Amtrak service)

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#554

Post by AngryData »

Supermancho wrote: post #217
egypturnash wrote: post #23

they’d need to leave behind the idea that snow, overcast, wind, rain, and long winters are all that bad to contend with, because in all truth, they’re actually great. I am glad people like this exist because that means there is less competition for the climate zones I can live in without having to perpetually struggle with the urge to kill myself on a daily basis. I am from the Gulf Coast and the years I lived in Sea…

Heating a space is easier and cheaper than cooling one. I find the midwest is plenty dry and plenty warm, even with multi-month snowy winters.

If you are living near New York im not sure how dry you can consider it. You are East of the Great Lakes which makes it rain. In the middle of summer it might be dry, but both the spring and fall i expect to be very wet and humid, and unless the Great Lakes freeze over in the winter, which is happening less and less by the year, you will have a wet slushy winter.

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#555

Post by watwut »

os2warpman wrote: post #529
troupo wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you have a social "thing" like tennis or climbing Then you wouldn't be able to cut down expenses to "nothing"/month. Social thing assumes expenses. Hobbies assume expenses.

A tennis racket is $13 at Goodwill and tennis balls are $1.30/ea. In the case of living in Massena, NY like the author you can play at Alcoa Park for $0.00. As for climbing, you don't need a $200 climbing harness you can tie your own Swiss seat out of rope ($2/ft.) and buy a couple of snap links ($4-10/ea.). I would buy a lower-end harness for $30 though. Spread out over several seasons that is as close to "nothing"…

Have you ever tried to do those sports with cheapest equipment? Because I did and it ended up the same as everyone else who tried it in a cheapest possible way - you stop because it is not fun nor pleasure and equipment limits you.

That being said, for tenista you need to pay entry. For climbing, you will be kicked out of gym on top of it being uncomfortable. Climbing gym don't want you injured due to badly made seat - it makes other guests feeling bad.

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#556

Post by watwut »

nobodywillobsrv wrote: post #341
xp84 wrote: post #270

I've commented (probably too much) to argue with the harshest critics of this piece, but I am surprised to not have seen much this criticism which is my main one: Supposing I've made peace with the main gist of this: Cut living expenses to a point where you can work ¼ or so of the time most of us spend working by living somewhere cheap and not being so materialistic. The missing piece here is social connections. Fami…

To be fair, leaving everyone behind and not seeing them again was kind of what people did in the great grandfather era mentioned in the article. Even not that long ago. I was talking to someone only perhaps grandma age the other day who said their brother's family moved to BC and they didn't see them for 25 years. Your comment does focus in on the interesting point in that connected places have perhaps not scaled as…

Most people stayed with the family.

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#557

Post by watwut »

yardie wrote: post #374
hshdhdhj4444 wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what people did in the great grandfather era Unfortunately the appeal to ancestry fallacy is always a terrible idea. You see this in the nutrition space where “influencers” go on and on about how our ancestors ate, forgetting that our ancestors died extremely early relative to modern humans. Similarly, our grandparents lived pretty terrible lives in many ways. The reason to complain about the high cost of living is…

When I look at some of my favourite writers, philosophers, and scientists from past eras quite a few of them died in their 60s and 70s. Medicine and nutrition was poorly understood for that time. What they had in common was wealth and professions that wasn’t backbreaking labor. Child mortality was high and that is what really drags the average age down.

It was not just child mortality. It was adults dying from diseases and infectiona we don't die of anymore too.

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#558

Post by maxerickson »

Loughla wrote: post #147
TrackerFF wrote: post #134

I looked through those numbers, and immediately thought to myself - hope you don't need to see a doctor for anything serious, or go to a dentist for that mater. FWIW, I grew up in rural nowhere (population 150, nearest town 45 miles away) - and I honestly don't know how anyone can live out in the boonies without a car. Taking the bus that goes 3 times a day is one thing, needing to move stuff is another thing. I mean…

What small town even has a bus? The closest bus line to me is in the closest large town (40k) about an hour away. Are there bus lines in the middle of nowhere?

A lot of smaller counties have a publicly operated demand response service that includes small buses, or at least some vehicle that is able to transport someone in a wheelchair.

So not a regular service schedule, but you can call and schedule a ride and it won't cost a lot.

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#559

Post by andriamanitra »

tshaddox wrote: post #262
cozzyd wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? You can walk plenty in the cold with the right equipment. I walked 2+ km a day at the south pole ...

47 people died in a blizzard in Buffalo, New York in 2022.

..in what National Weather Service described as "once-in-a-generation storm". Walking 2 km on a normal winter day (or even a mild blizzard) is not dangerous.

Re: How to live on $432 a month in America

#560

Post by harvey9 »

999900000999 wrote: post #276
coolcase wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm going to guess that you're a really good shape that a 2 km walk isn't a big deal, but I don't think most Americans can do that. Shit that's horrifying. I have health issues and walking 2km a day to try to help fix. So I see 2km a day as basic. 6-10km run a day would be "fit" IMO. things as humans are designed to walk. Living in suburbia means I have to walk "for the sake of it" although I cam make it useful e.g…

77% percent of young Americans aren't fit for service. 2 km of walking in a day, even in great weather is exceptional for me. I probably average 1km or less. And I'm not a car owner. My family members will literally hop in a car and drive 30 minutes over walking .5 km to the grocery store. They like the other one more they say.

I am 50 years old and don't think I'd pass fit for service either, but I can still easily walk a few Kms.
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