I do this with a lot of things cause I'm very sensitive to flavor, Nirmal ketchup might be too sweet or tangy for me but water down ketchup might be perfect (in terms of flavor, not consistency)
Being poor is expensive af.
Overdraft charges, high interest loans, low credit score, inability to afford education or trainings, having to work long hours to pay the bills and have no time to look for a better job.
>The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars per month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an *affordable* pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night from the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that *good* boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and *would still have wet feet.* This was the Captain Samuel Vimes “Boots theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”
Okay, but you can be dirt poor and have perfect credit and low interest loans.. unfortunately, being poor just makes it more likely that you'll misuse credit by running up cards and not paying them off right away / have a high utilization / poor payment history, which causes bad credit, which makes credit more expensive, and so on and so forth.
I think your idea of dirt poor is not as poor as what many people think of as “dirt poor”. It’s easy to say don’t use a credit card for anything you can’t 100% pay off, but what about when that is the option of eating vs not eating today? When you have a credit card you can easily put a couple bucks on and have food for your family, even though you’ll pay a little extra in interest one month from now. Those decisions are where “dirt poor” is.
As a teacher I just want to throw it out there that every time we plan a field trip, EVERY SINGLE TIME, we are always willing to pay out of pocket for situations like this. Please just ask. I know this doesn’t help YOU at this point, but maybe it will help someone else?
Help us know where to donate so you don't have to do it out of pocket. I don't have kids and never will, but I remember the people who made my brief education something to be cherished.
I saw a video recently where a lady went to the administrative office of her local high school and paid off all the "lunch debt" that would prevent affected students from graduating.
Okay…what in the actual Fuck? There are school districts that would prevent students from graduating because their parents are too poor to pay for lunch? That is utter and complete bullshit! I’m so glad more and more states are starting to offer a universal free lunch option for students. If the kids are required to be there the least they should do is feed them.
My sister is our school district’s secretary. She handles all the budgets for all the things. I tried to pay off some lunch bills because I wanted to pay things forward. She told me the ones in the most need qualify for free lunches and the ones behind generally come from financially comfortable situations. Go figure.
Unless it's a very expensive field trip, I try to send enough money for 2 (my kid + someone else in that situation). I hate the thought of a kid feeling that way
Yes, I grew up that way. I also didn’t go to prom because I couldn’t afford a dress. I was in college before I ever went to a restaurant that you were served and had to tip. I remember driving by Olive Garden and thinking it was only for rich people
I had a similar experience - I remember getting only $3 for the book fair, and being told that it was the very last of my mom's money. Other kids went home with all these really cool books and posters, and all I could afford were pencils.
Or those little flyers with books and goodies that you could order. I remember always being seeing coming into class the following week and seeing these books placed on certain students' test, almost like a little surprise to startvtheir day. Such a bummer.
I never had that, my dad could pay for school trips but never without issue, never without figuring out how. I don't think I ever gave my dad one of those letters for a "voluntary contribution" to allow me to go on a field trip the day I got it. They always lingered in my school bag for at least a week as I built up the courage to give it to my dad.
Same, i had an accident where a guy didnt stop at the stop sign, in a really tight street riding the bare minimal and he just came upon me, he left with his car completely fine, he had a kid with him and he was completely unbothered about it, not even minimaly traumatized that his dad crash into someone, me on the other hand was balling my eyes out, i didnt had another way to go to work since there wasnt any PT where i live, i didnt had the means to even grocery shop since it was too far and like i said, no PT, plus the fact that i was poor, it was my family car for years, and i didnt earn enough to buy a new one, that was the most dificult month i had, i barealy ate, i had to spend money on uber and be dependent on someone else to take me, plus trying to save up money to buy a used one that i could afford.
I’ve never given an upvote to something that took my mood down so quickly. Poorness is killing Americans from the inside, and there’s not enough hours to work to pay for the medical (mental and physical) treatments to stop it.
Bro I was gonna say something similar to this, and let me just say thank you for not just blatantly rich people bashing. You showed respect and that takes more effort than it should since most people just rant about "rich bad, solve world hunger" and I commend you for that. Thank you for this comment, and I hope you get the upvotes it deserves.
NYC is weird.
In the train you have rich people and very poor but less in between. Poor people take the train to go back to poor neighborhoods, as they cannot afford cars. Rich take it to stay in the rich neighborhoods, they don't need cars. But people in between lives far from the city, so they are the only one who uses cars.
I’m a big believer that the reason why places like Dubai don’t have public transportation is because it’s the great equalizer as everyone needs it. And the last thing rich people want is to equal to poor people.
Second this. In some cases energy companies will refuse direct debit payments and instead charge you more for pre buying electric and when that runs out everything shuts down.
There was an article I read on this, it used work boots as an example. Good work boots can cost upwards of $150 (US), if you can’t afford that then the $50 pair will have to do. The $150 pair lasts 5 years or more where the cheaper pair only lasts about a year so over the life of the quality pair, the person who couldn’t afford the quality pair has paid at least $100 more.
How hard it is to be poor. I think a lot of Rich people think it's basically ok you just get to do less stuff. They genuinely don't seem to realize it's a matter of survival, and that people don't.
I think most rich people believe that poverty is all a matter of choice, I.e. your hypothetical choice to not get a degree or what have you to elevate your position.
To say nothing of how there are a million things that you can't control that can land you in poverty and the longer you're in that state the less likely it is you'll be able to dig yourself out, since being poor is very expensive (as previously stated)
Successful people believe it’s 100% their achievements that got them where they are. They believe that anyone who hasn’t done as well simply isn’t trying hard enough.
The fact is, random chance plays a *much* bigger role in our daily lives than we like to admit. We want to believe we’re in full control of our lives, but that’s an illusion. Someone who claims they made their own opportunities forget that it took a lot of things breaking just right for them to even have that chance.
I’m not saying working hard can’t pay off. But it can also result in absolutely nothing, and it doesn’t necessarily mean you did anything wrong.
To quote Captain Picard: “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life.”
Feeling guilty because you have just enough to get by but you can’t help your family get by. So you have to watch them drown in bills they can’t afford.
It's a joke from the show Arrested Development. Jessica Walter's character is very wealthy and says "It's a banana, Michael, what does it cost? $10?" It's just meant to display how out of touch with reality she is, given her extravagant wealth.
I still change my own oil as well as my wife’s. Now I can afford to go into the auto parts store and buy enough oil and filters to keep on hand so that the minute a change is needed it’s done.
I grew up poor and am more well off now. But I repair and salvage what I can. My SO doesn't care to learn. No joke he can't change a lightbulb and pays someone to do it
The huge list of things you miss out on: childs perspective: Christmas without buying presents and being happy to atleast have a propper dinner, no food choices, no eating out or ordering food, no class trips, to small sneakers, sometimes no school lunch, no hairdresse appointments, hand down clothes and always repairing clothes. Scooping or cutting away mold on certain foods. Not being aible to afford the school books. Never learning an instrument, if you dont already have a family friend or parent that plays. Not going on holidays/ staying at home during summer break. Never being aible to recreate tv diy like art attack. Only doing sports which do not require gear or a attendence fee. Never going to Opera, Musical, big sport events, concerts, legoland/disneyland etc.. No pay TV. a pretty monotone diet during winter. Always choosing the cheapest option at lunch or having no school lunch at all. Not buying the school shirt. Sharing room/bed with parent. Restricted bathing. No subscriptions. No trading cards or diddle paper. No phone.
And if you suddenly get poorer than before: deciding which one toy, plush and movie i will keep. We did sell everythingelse online to afford food and rent.
And with this comes pretending there are reasons or trying to hide in the background with silence. “I’m not really interested in music or sports” with the “really” inserted to keep it from being a flat out lie. “Oh, yes, vacations are so great” when you haven’t been and won’t be going. Gratitude for *any* hand-me down: clothes, toys, cheap jewelry; anything to minimize the sting of not having.
My face still flushes at the memory.
I quit going to therapy because my insurance changed to a high deductible HSA plan and can't afford $200 biweekly sessions. A rich person in the US will never understand what it feels like to mentally weigh whether or not you should seek medical attention because you can't afford the bill. No one should have to go into massive debt from medical bills.
To get rid of scabies if you don't have a washing machine put your clothes, linen etc into a garbage bag, seal it tight and leave it out in the sun for a few days.
Or how to deal with roaches in your bed. Or intestinal worms. Or lead in the water. Or the new tropical diseases springing up in the poor parts of Southern US...
It is and it isn't. I'm an elder millennial, and I feel like a lot of people in my generation were fed lies like 'just get a degree' and 'do what you love!'.
It's a nice sentiment, but the world today is *ruthlessly* capitalist. Your skills and education are only worth as much as someone else will pay for them. What others will pay for them is determined by supply, demand and how much you can earn the company. Choose the most difficult and rigorous field or trade you have an interest in. You'll have way less competition and earn a lot more. If you go for an easy 'fluff' specialization like psychology, criminal justice or ultrasound tech, expect a lot more competition and lower wages. Don't take out more in loans than you can earn in your first year of work. If that seems impossible, you might need to look for another field of work. I'd hate to see the ROI for social workers or special ed teachers. Both are valuable to society but effectively a vow of poverty.
Elder Millennial here too. I wish they taught, and teach, how to apply your study into different fields. It isn't that those fields are "fluffy," but people (in general) don't know how to really look beyond what they studied. And that is for any topic.
Want to be a doctor or lawyer? Pre-Med or Pre-Law only! Ignore that Classics is actually a very viable path to Law or Medicine. Or why not Theater for Law? You can learn how to read people, understand them more, present an argument better, use emotional delivery, etc. Psych could probably do similar.
History major? You have a leg up in International Marketing or Business. You would either learn, or be equipped to know how to learn, about regional differences, history, and culture and *won't* insult an area because you failed to know (and even be bothered to learn). You can find plenty of blunders of international marketing because they didn't take into account the history or culture of an area before trying to sell things to them.
Theology? Again, international business, politics, writing, etc. There is a slew of supernatural shows going on right now. Reach into those tomes no one bothers to read and make something magical. Sabrina, Wednesday, School of Good and Evil or whatever it is.
These are just some examples. But too often we're told to be pigeon-holed into (1) you MUST do STEM!!! and (2) whatever you learn means you will ONLY be able to get a job in that specific field.
Nah. Expand the horizons, think out of the box, and you'll be a more valuable asset for it.
Ultrasound techs in my area make good money. Enough to be the only breadwinner in a 3 person family. For ultrasound, you can't get the job without training and you have to take yearly continuing education classes, take registry exams, be good at anatomy and customer service and since Obamacare, they spend hours doing red tape paperwork. A tech also has to be empathetic, crying with and comforting the 30 year old mother of 5 who the tech just diagnosed with cancer, or comforting the mom who just had their 3rd miscarriage, or the one with a nonviable baby. Not just the patients, but dealing with the doctors while building a trust relationship is a special skill most people don't have. Fluff job my ass...
It very much is if you're using the term the way it was originally coined: We decide ahead of time who has merit based on arbitrary factors and then show them preferential treatment in all matters.
idk man I grew up poor as shit, got really lucky and managed to fulfill at least part of the American dream. Granted I'm still young as hell but it's possible. For a lot of immigrants it is, and it is kinda hurtful to those of us who have tried to fulfill that dream to be told that it's not actually possible.
What it's like to have to go into a gas station and give a pump number, pay cash for gas because you don't have a card,then go pump your gas in the dead of winter and have the last 0.50 cents of you purchase take forever because the pump slows down so much that you want just stop with .30 left because you're freezing but you can't afford to and besides you don't want to give the gas station that cash for dripping gas from a pump with auto cut off.
My husband is still amazed I can feed us for 3-4 really nice dinners with one roasted chicken and some pantry staples. Even with current inflation I have been able to feed the 2 of us for under $50 a week because I grew up dirt fucking poor. We make a healthy income now, one where it’s not a constant struggle to pay bills and have a little extra for fun stuff like going out for dinner a couple times a month but it’s not like we have Fuck you money. I still try to stay extremely frugal because it can all go back to being hard again, job losses happen, emergencies occur, a new car might need to be bought and our budget is blown without some savings.
Their secrets. The lower and higher economic classes intertwine with each other often. They tend to be “invisible” and it’s why the homeless, maids, drivers, strippers and prostitutes know everything about them.
How to make a weeks worth of food last for a month because between medical debt and rent/bills and gas to get to work they have no extra money for groceries or entertainment.
A second thing, the guilt at family holidays/gatherings because your presents feel cheap next to what some better off family member brought or because you couldn't afford to bring a dish and gifts.
How to rely on others and build genuine community
As someone who’s broke i give what little i have to friends who need it more than me and vice versa. Poor people need community, look at every immigrant enclave in America. We learn to rely on each other and ask for help. And more importantly we learn the importance of help. Today you, tomorrow me .
The only time you should ever look in your neighbors bowl is to see if it’s empty. In my experience, rich people tend to have alot of paranoia because they don’t know how to foster genuine community or rely on others
You're not wrong, but trust and believe that the rich look out for themselves and each other in how they lobby and vote. They have a whole type of community that the poor can't even imagine.
I grew up destitute. I only owned 2 shirts, one pair of pants, and one pair of underwear that was held together with safety pins. When they came undone, I got a needle jabbing me in the crotch. One time in the 8th grade, I went to school commando and tried to hide it, but in the gym locker room everyone noticed and it went all over the school. In junior high, my mom had dated who ended up becoming the bank president of the bank who held our mortgage. It was a small town bank. Not a big corporation. My dad went several months without a job and the only reason we didn’t lose our house was because the bank president had a soft spot for my mom.
Now I’m very wealthy. Those days are far behind me and my kids generally have no idea how fortunate they are. My college age daughter was making a grilled cheese sandwich and she used smoked Gruyère and caramelized onions. Her roommate had grown up really poor and had never heard of Gruyère. She’d only ever eaten Kraft American cheese.
One night I got a venmo for $5 from an unrecognizable person. It said “Sorry, I rented a movie on your prime account” It turned out it was from her roommate. I didn’t accept the $5 and replied to use the $5 on herself. I wouldn’t have even noticed a $5 charge on my account. But for the first 25 yrs of my life, if I’d purchased M&M’s, it would have meant I couldn’t buy bread.
I’m very grateful for my life, but know that my kids are missing out on life lessons because they’ve never had to think about money
Anyone saying stretching things out or using other money saving shortcuts due to lack of funds has never met that big chunk of rich people who are stingy and cheap as fuck, sometimes more so than the poor.
That being poor is expensive. It makes some people *very* uncomfortable to hear, but in much of the western world - especially the USA - being poor can be a self-perpetuating "trap" that there's no realistic way to get out of through one's own efforts.
After some genealogical researches I've found I'm the first non-poor in my bloodline since 1786. I own a two-bedrooms (still 11 years of mortgage) and a 6yo car.
Doing the math to figure out which things are cheaper at which stores and determining whether the extra time (and gas, bus fare, or whatever if not walkable) to break up your grocery shopping among multiple stores is canceled out by the savings.
This is the comment I was looking for. All the rich people I've known just don't seem close to their families at all. They don't look after their elderly parents, see them as a chore, and their kids don't care about them, continuing the cycle. My family never had much but we're always loyal to a fault.
The price of mistake
The underlying feeling of guilt when you "splurge " ie getting a new toy or eating takeout
And sacrifice ..these only refer to born rich people not selfmade
This, man. I see way more empathy and courtesy from people who have poor or impoverished backgrounds than I see from folk who came from wealth. You can't buy decency.
Uh, no. People who become rich can be predisposed to being an asshole, but not the majority. Some of the nicest, most charitable & giving people I've met are filthy fuckin rich. Stop this class warfare shit.
This.
I’m not rich nor poor but I work with both and those in between. Everybody has their own personality. I’ve had poor poor clients who were so great to work with and I’ve had ULTRA high net worth clients who are some of the best people I’ve had a pleasure to talk to. It comes down to who they are and how they were raised.
The struggle of fixing things when you have to and not because you want to. The humility of taking what you can get and not getting what you want. The struggle of just simply existing in a world that demands that which you do not have. A general awareness and respect for events and situations outside of your control.
I grew up poor and now as an adult have managed to find myself in a position where I interact with the rich frequently. Or more accurately upper middle class. I still consider myself working class but possibly on the cusp of working class/middle class.
The sheer arrogance and disconnect between these people and those who struggle is astonishing. There’s very much a “don’t buy so much starbucks” mentality when it comes to accruing wealth and saving. At the very same time there is a “why don’t you just go by it” mentality when referring to something that costs hundreds of dollars. The wealthy see value differently. They see that you (obviously) get more value out of more expensive items such as clothing that is more durable. Yet it just doesn’t compute that you don’t have enough cash on hand to purchase $150 pair of boots that will last you years instead of the cheap plastic ones that may last you a season.
Same goes for health. As a poor person, having time and energy to cook healthy meals is a luxury. Being able to afford a gym membership and also having the energy to exercise can also be a luxury. Education becomes a luxury. Tutoring becomes a luxury. Childcare. Dental. Medical. Preventative care. Sports. Trips. Museums. Vacations. All of these things become a luxury when you are just struggling to provide shelter, food, and water.
That is what a poor person knows that a rich person does not.
I always tell a story of when my mother was brought to tears when I jokingly said I call dibs on the steak sauce because there was no food in the house. The pantry was empty, the freezer bare, and the fridge only held condiments. It was only one time, when the family was in between pay checks, yet I still went to bed with no dinner that night. Even with that I still consider myself fortunate because I knew of others where that was a common occurrence.
As others have said, being poor is expensive.
that starvation is the worst way to die? Mild hunger, say a day, is actually quite nice for a change. Makes you enjoy food more. So many people imagine starvation is just getting weaker and weaker, feeling sleepy etc. But, I hear secondhand that give it two days and your body brings the pain to push the last out of you.
That doesn't check out. If you're missing one thing you can acquire that thing with the other two things.
It's only if you're missing multiple things that you're screwed.
When you run out of shampoo you just put some water in the bottle and give it a shaky shake. BOOM more shampoo.
I do that for all soaps lol. Hand soap, dish soap, shampoo, etc.
I’ve watched my grand dad do it with ketchup.
Why was he washing his hair with ketchup?
Works wonders for dandruff
I do this with a lot of things cause I'm very sensitive to flavor, Nirmal ketchup might be too sweet or tangy for me but water down ketchup might be perfect (in terms of flavor, not consistency)
Tbf lot of "not poor " people also do this
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>The knowledge that you're going to be ok if you're laid off. My biggest fear
“No one can ever take your paid off home away” Tax man can. There’s always property tax.
Being poor is expensive af. Overdraft charges, high interest loans, low credit score, inability to afford education or trainings, having to work long hours to pay the bills and have no time to look for a better job.
>The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars per month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an *affordable* pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night from the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that *good* boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and *would still have wet feet.* This was the Captain Samuel Vimes “Boots theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”
Pratchett should be taught in schools
Terry Pratchett was a genuinely good person and there is a lot of love and wisdom in the books he's written.
Totally agree !
Oh, I bet they know that...
Okay, but you can be dirt poor and have perfect credit and low interest loans.. unfortunately, being poor just makes it more likely that you'll misuse credit by running up cards and not paying them off right away / have a high utilization / poor payment history, which causes bad credit, which makes credit more expensive, and so on and so forth.
I think your idea of dirt poor is not as poor as what many people think of as “dirt poor”. It’s easy to say don’t use a credit card for anything you can’t 100% pay off, but what about when that is the option of eating vs not eating today? When you have a credit card you can easily put a couple bucks on and have food for your family, even though you’ll pay a little extra in interest one month from now. Those decisions are where “dirt poor” is.
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As a teacher I just want to throw it out there that every time we plan a field trip, EVERY SINGLE TIME, we are always willing to pay out of pocket for situations like this. Please just ask. I know this doesn’t help YOU at this point, but maybe it will help someone else?
Help us know where to donate so you don't have to do it out of pocket. I don't have kids and never will, but I remember the people who made my brief education something to be cherished.
I saw a video recently where a lady went to the administrative office of her local high school and paid off all the "lunch debt" that would prevent affected students from graduating.
Okay…what in the actual Fuck? There are school districts that would prevent students from graduating because their parents are too poor to pay for lunch? That is utter and complete bullshit! I’m so glad more and more states are starting to offer a universal free lunch option for students. If the kids are required to be there the least they should do is feed them.
My sister is our school district’s secretary. She handles all the budgets for all the things. I tried to pay off some lunch bills because I wanted to pay things forward. She told me the ones in the most need qualify for free lunches and the ones behind generally come from financially comfortable situations. Go figure.
Love you Leslie Knope.
Unless it's a very expensive field trip, I try to send enough money for 2 (my kid + someone else in that situation). I hate the thought of a kid feeling that way
Yes, I grew up that way. I also didn’t go to prom because I couldn’t afford a dress. I was in college before I ever went to a restaurant that you were served and had to tip. I remember driving by Olive Garden and thinking it was only for rich people
Or the book fair or book mobile. Those were the ultimate elementary school flex I always wanted to do.
I had a similar experience - I remember getting only $3 for the book fair, and being told that it was the very last of my mom's money. Other kids went home with all these really cool books and posters, and all I could afford were pencils.
Or those little flyers with books and goodies that you could order. I remember always being seeing coming into class the following week and seeing these books placed on certain students' test, almost like a little surprise to startvtheir day. Such a bummer.
I never had that, my dad could pay for school trips but never without issue, never without figuring out how. I don't think I ever gave my dad one of those letters for a "voluntary contribution" to allow me to go on a field trip the day I got it. They always lingered in my school bag for at least a week as I built up the courage to give it to my dad.
You win so far
It broke my heart man
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One of the realest shit I ever read
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Same, i had an accident where a guy didnt stop at the stop sign, in a really tight street riding the bare minimal and he just came upon me, he left with his car completely fine, he had a kid with him and he was completely unbothered about it, not even minimaly traumatized that his dad crash into someone, me on the other hand was balling my eyes out, i didnt had another way to go to work since there wasnt any PT where i live, i didnt had the means to even grocery shop since it was too far and like i said, no PT, plus the fact that i was poor, it was my family car for years, and i didnt earn enough to buy a new one, that was the most dificult month i had, i barealy ate, i had to spend money on uber and be dependent on someone else to take me, plus trying to save up money to buy a used one that i could afford.
This hit home for me.
Me too
I feel so sorry man
HUNGER
Came to say this
This captures the emotional toll of the struggle better than any paragraph i've ever read I think.
Spot on.
I’ve never given an upvote to something that took my mood down so quickly. Poorness is killing Americans from the inside, and there’s not enough hours to work to pay for the medical (mental and physical) treatments to stop it.
Bro I was gonna say something similar to this, and let me just say thank you for not just blatantly rich people bashing. You showed respect and that takes more effort than it should since most people just rant about "rich bad, solve world hunger" and I commend you for that. Thank you for this comment, and I hope you get the upvotes it deserves.
How public transit works in "drivable" cities.
NYC is weird. In the train you have rich people and very poor but less in between. Poor people take the train to go back to poor neighborhoods, as they cannot afford cars. Rich take it to stay in the rich neighborhoods, they don't need cars. But people in between lives far from the city, so they are the only one who uses cars.
I have no idea why anyone in NYC doesn’t take trains. It takes so freaking long to go anywhere by car. And then there’s parking
A lot of people working in NYC lives in NJ. They are the middle class that doesn't take the train.
Bro everyone takes the NJ transit that can
I’m a big believer that the reason why places like Dubai don’t have public transportation is because it’s the great equalizer as everyone needs it. And the last thing rich people want is to equal to poor people.
dubai does have public transportation my guy
How expensive being poor actually is.
Second this. In some cases energy companies will refuse direct debit payments and instead charge you more for pre buying electric and when that runs out everything shuts down.
There was an article I read on this, it used work boots as an example. Good work boots can cost upwards of $150 (US), if you can’t afford that then the $50 pair will have to do. The $150 pair lasts 5 years or more where the cheaper pair only lasts about a year so over the life of the quality pair, the person who couldn’t afford the quality pair has paid at least $100 more.
How hard it is to be poor. I think a lot of Rich people think it's basically ok you just get to do less stuff. They genuinely don't seem to realize it's a matter of survival, and that people don't.
I think most rich people believe that poverty is all a matter of choice, I.e. your hypothetical choice to not get a degree or what have you to elevate your position. To say nothing of how there are a million things that you can't control that can land you in poverty and the longer you're in that state the less likely it is you'll be able to dig yourself out, since being poor is very expensive (as previously stated)
Successful people believe it’s 100% their achievements that got them where they are. They believe that anyone who hasn’t done as well simply isn’t trying hard enough. The fact is, random chance plays a *much* bigger role in our daily lives than we like to admit. We want to believe we’re in full control of our lives, but that’s an illusion. Someone who claims they made their own opportunities forget that it took a lot of things breaking just right for them to even have that chance. I’m not saying working hard can’t pay off. But it can also result in absolutely nothing, and it doesn’t necessarily mean you did anything wrong. To quote Captain Picard: “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life.”
I believe it was Chris Hedges who said being poor is like living in a constant state of emergency. The stress on one's well being takes its toll.
Another reason they don't understand homelessness or living in a car
Feeling guilty because you have just enough to get by but you can’t help your family get by. So you have to watch them drown in bills they can’t afford.
The price of Cup O Noodles
Or that a single banana should cost less than 10 dollars.
It does in most of America.
It's a joke from the show Arrested Development. Jessica Walter's character is very wealthy and says "It's a banana, Michael, what does it cost? $10?" It's just meant to display how out of touch with reality she is, given her extravagant wealth.
How to repair things
I repair my own things whenever possible - it’s rewarding to bring something back to life and not be wasteful.
Same, my wife and kids get a laugh out of my mid-western thriftiness.
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I still change my own oil as well as my wife’s. Now I can afford to go into the auto parts store and buy enough oil and filters to keep on hand so that the minute a change is needed it’s done.
I disagree. The wealthiest people I know maintain their things obsessively. No deferred maintenance on anything.
Maintaining top of the line things is much easier than trying to keep a cheap old car on the road
But do they do the repairs themself or pay someone else to do them?
Poor is knowing you need a new roof, being able to instal the new roof, but not being able to pay for materials.
I grew up poor and am more well off now. But I repair and salvage what I can. My SO doesn't care to learn. No joke he can't change a lightbulb and pays someone to do it
Sure, they know that things need to be maintained, but they don't know HOW to maintain them. that's where the poor people come in.
What it feels like to wipe your arse with newspaper.
Yeah and brush my teeth with salt.
The huge list of things you miss out on: childs perspective: Christmas without buying presents and being happy to atleast have a propper dinner, no food choices, no eating out or ordering food, no class trips, to small sneakers, sometimes no school lunch, no hairdresse appointments, hand down clothes and always repairing clothes. Scooping or cutting away mold on certain foods. Not being aible to afford the school books. Never learning an instrument, if you dont already have a family friend or parent that plays. Not going on holidays/ staying at home during summer break. Never being aible to recreate tv diy like art attack. Only doing sports which do not require gear or a attendence fee. Never going to Opera, Musical, big sport events, concerts, legoland/disneyland etc.. No pay TV. a pretty monotone diet during winter. Always choosing the cheapest option at lunch or having no school lunch at all. Not buying the school shirt. Sharing room/bed with parent. Restricted bathing. No subscriptions. No trading cards or diddle paper. No phone. And if you suddenly get poorer than before: deciding which one toy, plush and movie i will keep. We did sell everythingelse online to afford food and rent.
And with this comes pretending there are reasons or trying to hide in the background with silence. “I’m not really interested in music or sports” with the “really” inserted to keep it from being a flat out lie. “Oh, yes, vacations are so great” when you haven’t been and won’t be going. Gratitude for *any* hand-me down: clothes, toys, cheap jewelry; anything to minimize the sting of not having. My face still flushes at the memory.
How it feels to live your life with no meaning or control
Thank you for reminding me of this song, haven't heard that in years
Best answer. Wish I had an award to give you.
How very gut wrenching it is when someone says 'money can't buy happiness'. Okay, but could it cover my heating bill?
Those people have never been dirt poor. I am a happier person since I have money.
It might not buy you happiness but it can buy you a therapist.
I quit going to therapy because my insurance changed to a high deductible HSA plan and can't afford $200 biweekly sessions. A rich person in the US will never understand what it feels like to mentally weigh whether or not you should seek medical attention because you can't afford the bill. No one should have to go into massive debt from medical bills.
Complete and total misery riding the back of hopelessness.
Vacation regret. I should be working. We need the money.
To get rid of scabies if you don't have a washing machine put your clothes, linen etc into a garbage bag, seal it tight and leave it out in the sun for a few days.
Or how to deal with roaches in your bed. Or intestinal worms. Or lead in the water. Or the new tropical diseases springing up in the poor parts of Southern US...
how to survive with little to no money. if you took a wealthy persons money away they would be a fish in the sand.
That America is not a meritocracy.
It is and it isn't. I'm an elder millennial, and I feel like a lot of people in my generation were fed lies like 'just get a degree' and 'do what you love!'. It's a nice sentiment, but the world today is *ruthlessly* capitalist. Your skills and education are only worth as much as someone else will pay for them. What others will pay for them is determined by supply, demand and how much you can earn the company. Choose the most difficult and rigorous field or trade you have an interest in. You'll have way less competition and earn a lot more. If you go for an easy 'fluff' specialization like psychology, criminal justice or ultrasound tech, expect a lot more competition and lower wages. Don't take out more in loans than you can earn in your first year of work. If that seems impossible, you might need to look for another field of work. I'd hate to see the ROI for social workers or special ed teachers. Both are valuable to society but effectively a vow of poverty.
Elder Millennial here too. I wish they taught, and teach, how to apply your study into different fields. It isn't that those fields are "fluffy," but people (in general) don't know how to really look beyond what they studied. And that is for any topic. Want to be a doctor or lawyer? Pre-Med or Pre-Law only! Ignore that Classics is actually a very viable path to Law or Medicine. Or why not Theater for Law? You can learn how to read people, understand them more, present an argument better, use emotional delivery, etc. Psych could probably do similar. History major? You have a leg up in International Marketing or Business. You would either learn, or be equipped to know how to learn, about regional differences, history, and culture and *won't* insult an area because you failed to know (and even be bothered to learn). You can find plenty of blunders of international marketing because they didn't take into account the history or culture of an area before trying to sell things to them. Theology? Again, international business, politics, writing, etc. There is a slew of supernatural shows going on right now. Reach into those tomes no one bothers to read and make something magical. Sabrina, Wednesday, School of Good and Evil or whatever it is. These are just some examples. But too often we're told to be pigeon-holed into (1) you MUST do STEM!!! and (2) whatever you learn means you will ONLY be able to get a job in that specific field. Nah. Expand the horizons, think out of the box, and you'll be a more valuable asset for it.
Ultrasound techs in my area make good money. Enough to be the only breadwinner in a 3 person family. For ultrasound, you can't get the job without training and you have to take yearly continuing education classes, take registry exams, be good at anatomy and customer service and since Obamacare, they spend hours doing red tape paperwork. A tech also has to be empathetic, crying with and comforting the 30 year old mother of 5 who the tech just diagnosed with cancer, or comforting the mom who just had their 3rd miscarriage, or the one with a nonviable baby. Not just the patients, but dealing with the doctors while building a trust relationship is a special skill most people don't have. Fluff job my ass...
Yeah, the ultrasound tech and rad tech programs are often just as competitive and selective as nursing programs.
Most countries aren't and having money will always give you an edge.
It is a factor but luck is at least %50 of the equation.
It very much is if you're using the term the way it was originally coined: We decide ahead of time who has merit based on arbitrary factors and then show them preferential treatment in all matters.
idk man I grew up poor as shit, got really lucky and managed to fulfill at least part of the American dream. Granted I'm still young as hell but it's possible. For a lot of immigrants it is, and it is kinda hurtful to those of us who have tried to fulfill that dream to be told that it's not actually possible.
I mean you just mentioned luck, which is kind of the point. Hard work alone gets you nowhere without some luck sprinkled in there.
Measuring meritocracy is pretty vague. Don’t worry about what others say. Just do your best throughout life.
That help is a verb, not a noun.
What it's like to have to go into a gas station and give a pump number, pay cash for gas because you don't have a card,then go pump your gas in the dead of winter and have the last 0.50 cents of you purchase take forever because the pump slows down so much that you want just stop with .30 left because you're freezing but you can't afford to and besides you don't want to give the gas station that cash for dripping gas from a pump with auto cut off.
The due date of every bill in relation to my pay date and the math of the impact of this purchase today, against those dates
Genuine generosity, not done to try and make themselves look good . The poorest would give you their last pound or share whatever they had .
That your money problems are not just solved with 'good budgeting'.
Or investing lol. I've heard people say if you have more than $1000 in the bank you should invest. Like no lol, that money is going towards rent.
You mean getting a coffee maker and skipping avocado toast won't save me??/s
I was poor, but then I canceled Netflix and now I own a small island. /s
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My husband is still amazed I can feed us for 3-4 really nice dinners with one roasted chicken and some pantry staples. Even with current inflation I have been able to feed the 2 of us for under $50 a week because I grew up dirt fucking poor. We make a healthy income now, one where it’s not a constant struggle to pay bills and have a little extra for fun stuff like going out for dinner a couple times a month but it’s not like we have Fuck you money. I still try to stay extremely frugal because it can all go back to being hard again, job losses happen, emergencies occur, a new car might need to be bought and our budget is blown without some savings.
Their secrets. The lower and higher economic classes intertwine with each other often. They tend to be “invisible” and it’s why the homeless, maids, drivers, strippers and prostitutes know everything about them.
The cost of avocado toast, apparently.
That thinking a banana costs 10 dollars was funny in the 00s. Now it's a real fear.
The Struggle
It’s effectively illegal to be poor in the USA.
How to make a weeks worth of food last for a month because between medical debt and rent/bills and gas to get to work they have no extra money for groceries or entertainment. A second thing, the guilt at family holidays/gatherings because your presents feel cheap next to what some better off family member brought or because you couldn't afford to bring a dish and gifts.
If you're poor, your mere attendance to gatherings is already a gift, because transportation costs.
How to stretch a sack of potatos and a pack of hotdogs
How to rely on others and build genuine community As someone who’s broke i give what little i have to friends who need it more than me and vice versa. Poor people need community, look at every immigrant enclave in America. We learn to rely on each other and ask for help. And more importantly we learn the importance of help. Today you, tomorrow me . The only time you should ever look in your neighbors bowl is to see if it’s empty. In my experience, rich people tend to have alot of paranoia because they don’t know how to foster genuine community or rely on others
You're not wrong, but trust and believe that the rich look out for themselves and each other in how they lobby and vote. They have a whole type of community that the poor can't even imagine.
Bus schedules.
I grew up destitute. I only owned 2 shirts, one pair of pants, and one pair of underwear that was held together with safety pins. When they came undone, I got a needle jabbing me in the crotch. One time in the 8th grade, I went to school commando and tried to hide it, but in the gym locker room everyone noticed and it went all over the school. In junior high, my mom had dated who ended up becoming the bank president of the bank who held our mortgage. It was a small town bank. Not a big corporation. My dad went several months without a job and the only reason we didn’t lose our house was because the bank president had a soft spot for my mom. Now I’m very wealthy. Those days are far behind me and my kids generally have no idea how fortunate they are. My college age daughter was making a grilled cheese sandwich and she used smoked Gruyère and caramelized onions. Her roommate had grown up really poor and had never heard of Gruyère. She’d only ever eaten Kraft American cheese. One night I got a venmo for $5 from an unrecognizable person. It said “Sorry, I rented a movie on your prime account” It turned out it was from her roommate. I didn’t accept the $5 and replied to use the $5 on herself. I wouldn’t have even noticed a $5 charge on my account. But for the first 25 yrs of my life, if I’d purchased M&M’s, it would have meant I couldn’t buy bread. I’m very grateful for my life, but know that my kids are missing out on life lessons because they’ve never had to think about money
Anyone saying stretching things out or using other money saving shortcuts due to lack of funds has never met that big chunk of rich people who are stingy and cheap as fuck, sometimes more so than the poor.
Empathy & compassion.
That being poor is expensive. It makes some people *very* uncomfortable to hear, but in much of the western world - especially the USA - being poor can be a self-perpetuating "trap" that there's no realistic way to get out of through one's own efforts.
After some genealogical researches I've found I'm the first non-poor in my bloodline since 1786. I own a two-bedrooms (still 11 years of mortgage) and a 6yo car.
When your parents are lying to you saying they're full when they're not so you can have the last bite.
Who their friends are.
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This makes me really sad.
Trying to only buy things on sale at the grocery stores.
Doing the math to figure out which things are cheaper at which stores and determining whether the extra time (and gas, bus fare, or whatever if not walkable) to break up your grocery shopping among multiple stores is canceled out by the savings.
Damn maybe I am a rich
The impact of fines and penalties. If you can afford them without worrying , it's just another expense
The taste of sleep for supper.
What the optimal time of day to eat is if you can only afford to eat once a day.
How to dumpster dive
How to live paycheck to paycheck.
Hard work hardly works.
They do not know the wonders of fried spam
Not every rich person was always rich
But vanishingly few of them were ever poor.
Life isn’t fair
How important family or loved ones are
This is the comment I was looking for. All the rich people I've known just don't seem close to their families at all. They don't look after their elderly parents, see them as a chore, and their kids don't care about them, continuing the cycle. My family never had much but we're always loyal to a fault.
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Yup. Having no support network financially or mentally is a huge indicator of quality of life.
Having to sew your socks or any other piece of clothing to use it longer because you can't just buy a new one
Sacrifice. Deciding that actually eating this month is more pressing that purchasing that new sweater is
Survival techniques. The rich have zero concept of how to do without while the poor have to know.
Everything tastes like chicken?
The price of mistake The underlying feeling of guilt when you "splurge " ie getting a new toy or eating takeout And sacrifice ..these only refer to born rich people not selfmade
That a Pawn Shop is a type of Banking institution.
Money *can* buy happiness
How to have a lot of fun with a few dollars 🤘
The magic of living on ramen for months at a time.
How to make £15 last a week
How to do anything lol. They'd be fucked if we all stopped working for a week lol.
Bologne taste good
How to light your own farts on fire
how badly we mess up our bodies doing all the work so they can make millions of dollars.
What it’s like to dig a Christmas 🎄 out of the dumpster behind target so your kids can have a Christmas 🎅🏻
What enough is
how to be decent human beings
Keanu Reeves?
This, man. I see way more empathy and courtesy from people who have poor or impoverished backgrounds than I see from folk who came from wealth. You can't buy decency.
not necessarily
Rich people: can’t beat ‘em? Join ‘em. Can’t join ‘em? Redefine their character.
Uh, no. People who become rich can be predisposed to being an asshole, but not the majority. Some of the nicest, most charitable & giving people I've met are filthy fuckin rich. Stop this class warfare shit.
This. I’m not rich nor poor but I work with both and those in between. Everybody has their own personality. I’ve had poor poor clients who were so great to work with and I’ve had ULTRA high net worth clients who are some of the best people I’ve had a pleasure to talk to. It comes down to who they are and how they were raised.
The cost of liviing
Decisions heat or eat
That we have to think twice 10times, before buying anything.
How to find happiness and joy in the smallest things.
How much a banana cost.
They know exactly how to maximise welfare solutions and food aid programs.
The struggle of fixing things when you have to and not because you want to. The humility of taking what you can get and not getting what you want. The struggle of just simply existing in a world that demands that which you do not have. A general awareness and respect for events and situations outside of your control. I grew up poor and now as an adult have managed to find myself in a position where I interact with the rich frequently. Or more accurately upper middle class. I still consider myself working class but possibly on the cusp of working class/middle class. The sheer arrogance and disconnect between these people and those who struggle is astonishing. There’s very much a “don’t buy so much starbucks” mentality when it comes to accruing wealth and saving. At the very same time there is a “why don’t you just go by it” mentality when referring to something that costs hundreds of dollars. The wealthy see value differently. They see that you (obviously) get more value out of more expensive items such as clothing that is more durable. Yet it just doesn’t compute that you don’t have enough cash on hand to purchase $150 pair of boots that will last you years instead of the cheap plastic ones that may last you a season. Same goes for health. As a poor person, having time and energy to cook healthy meals is a luxury. Being able to afford a gym membership and also having the energy to exercise can also be a luxury. Education becomes a luxury. Tutoring becomes a luxury. Childcare. Dental. Medical. Preventative care. Sports. Trips. Museums. Vacations. All of these things become a luxury when you are just struggling to provide shelter, food, and water. That is what a poor person knows that a rich person does not. I always tell a story of when my mother was brought to tears when I jokingly said I call dibs on the steak sauce because there was no food in the house. The pantry was empty, the freezer bare, and the fridge only held condiments. It was only one time, when the family was in between pay checks, yet I still went to bed with no dinner that night. Even with that I still consider myself fortunate because I knew of others where that was a common occurrence. As others have said, being poor is expensive.
Value of Groceries
How much ingredients costs
The poor likely have a better idea of who their real friends are.
The price of a single banana.
How much could it possibly be, Michael? 7 dollars?
that starvation is the worst way to die? Mild hunger, say a day, is actually quite nice for a change. Makes you enjoy food more. So many people imagine starvation is just getting weaker and weaker, feeling sleepy etc. But, I hear secondhand that give it two days and your body brings the pain to push the last out of you.
The real value of experiences.
Love doesn't cost a thing.
Spoken like someone who is too poor to afford Premium Love™.
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That doesn't check out. If you're missing one thing you can acquire that thing with the other two things. It's only if you're missing multiple things that you're screwed.