The high cost of poverty: Why the poor pay more

[nsideus]

Reverse discrimination does exist. I got massive grants from a private college because I am Hispanic and grew up poor. Taking into account scholarships and other grants I only had to take loans for about 20% of my education.

I do not think the poor are a problem or anything is their fault, but I believe we do need poor people in this country in order for there to be rich people. All I'm saying is that poor people have it comparitively well in the US, and they are poor because of choices they made in their life. No one is forcing them to be poor. That's one of the things that makes America great, it treats its poor well.

Many of the poor people I know are content with being poor. They are not ecstatic about it, but content. Sure their lives may be harder and they may feel cheated, but their lives aren't bad enough that they feel the need to make drastic lifestyle changes. Welfare ensures this. Even if you are poor in America you can still feed your family and afford a television.

Any US citizen who tries hard enough can work their way out of the ghetto. The only people who really have an excuse to be poor are new immigrants. Being poor in the US is a choice for anyone who was born here.

It would be a problem if every poor person successfully made their way out of the ghetto though. We need janitors, cashiers, farm workers, grocery stockers, etc. It's because we make it easy enough for people to willingly be poor that we don't need to force people to be poor (or worse, take away their free will and make them do what we want).

 

[TGregg]

Like food: You don't have a car to get to a supermarket, much less to Costco or Trader Joe's, where the middle class goes to save money. You don't have three hours to take the bus. So you buy groceries at the corner store, where a gallon of milk costs an extra dollar.

Trader Joe's saves you money? Not in my town, holy moly. But besides that, there's a good reason the supermarket chains have left the poor areas.

It used to be that you could find the chain stores in every neighborhood, whether it was rich, poor or in between. Sadly, the poor neighborhoods had higher crime rates and the stores could not afford to offer the same quality items at the same prices it could at places where people weren't stealing stuff left and right. So they lowered quality and raised prices.

And the "champions" of the poor (people who feed off the misery of others) raised holy hell. They demanded that the chains offer the same quality products at the same prices! Since the stores could not do that and cover the losses due to theft, they left.

The reason the poor cannot get groceries for a cheap price is because they ran the providers out of town.

 

[TGregg]

"If I had my choice, I would have a washer and a dryer," says Nya Oti, 37, a food-service worker who lives in Brightwood.

I bought a brand spanking new washer and dryer when we built our house. They weren't top of the line by any means, but they only cost (AIR) $250 and $400. You can pick up rerurbished units for $75.

But $150 is a lot when you don't have it. How many poor people have cell phones that they pay $30 a month for? 5 months of cell service - there's your washer and dryer.

 

[nutmeg]

The reason the poor cannot get groceries for a cheap price is because they ran the providers out of town.

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It wouldn't be too bad if the poor swiped a can of Spam but they steal steak and lobster.

 

[TGregg]

Quote from nutmeg:

It wouldn't be too bad if the poor swiped a can of Spam but they steal steak and lobster.

Don't you be dissin' Spam! I plan on frying some up for breakfast in the morning. Good stuff - slice it really thin and fry it `til it's crunchy. Yum!

 

[saxon22]

Quote from MandelbrotSet:

As always, an extremely learned post from you Cutten.

But you are leaving out the role that luck (or fate/karma) plays in one's success in life. And it plays a very big role, whether we know it, or admit it, in this culture and society.

It's true that it is "better to be lucky than smart", but at some point, intelligence will have to "kick-in".


And my suspicion is that, on a macro level, there is the perception of lack in this society. What that means is that "for me to win, you must lose", life is a zero sum game, and so long as "I get mine" that is all that matters.

At least, that's been my experience with people.

You are a smart fellow. I seldom give complements to people on ET, but you deserve it.

I have never lived in a real hood, and was able to go to decent schools, but have on occasion worked with urban youth and many are in need of better education and compassion not jails, discipline and contempt that so many are so quick to dish out. Unfortunately, many in the US (not all) think that a good whip and stern approach is the solution. Then again their idols are Rush L. and the Fox misinformation channel not Zinn and Chomsky.

 

[Arnie]

What do you expect? For the past 40+ years we have warehoused the poor and ignorant with other poor and ignorant?

 

[TGregg]

My car broke down this weekend. . .

WTF? Cars are damn expensive, and the article just got done talking about how poor people don't have them. Now we are supposed to feel sorry for her because her car broke down and she can't afford to fix it?

When I was in college, I couldn't #@&^ afford a car! I hoofed it all over town.

The poor pay for caller identification because it gives them peace of mind to weed out calls from bill collectors.

How about you don't spend what you don't have and save that $10 a month on caller ID?

The rich have direct deposit for their paychecks. The poor have check-cashing and payday loan joints, which cost time and money. Payday advance companies say they are providing an essential service to people who most need them. Their critics say they are preying on people who are the most "economically vulnerable."

Even when I was in college making about $3.50 an hour for 20 hours I could "afford" a savings account. Didn't cost me a thing. I couldn't write checks against it, but I could cash my paychecks for free. It was so #@^* far away that I would save up a month's worth of pay before walking down there, though.

Then there's credit. The poor don't have it.

While I use my credit card for most everything, I also pay it down every month. My first new car I bought, I paid 10k and borrowed 4k. My second, I paid in cash. The only thing I really needed credit for was my house - and if I could not get credit I would have rented and saved up.

The poor don't have credit because many of them won't pay it back.

The clerk suggests that he use his "bonus card" for savings.

Carter tells the clerk he has no such card.

WTF?! Free - just fill out a form and show your ID. I've done this when on vacation out of state to save a few dollars on a one time trip. But, the poor cannot be bothered, I guess.

And then he bitches about the "high prices" and demands a refund. Strangely the prices were printed on the store shelves before he choose his items.

"You pay rent that might be more than a mortgage,"

Not in this market. Not if you have half a brain enough to contact more than one place.

And finally:

Money and time. "I ride the bus to get to work," Nicholas says. It takes an hour. "If I could drive, it would take me 10 minutes. I have to catch two buses." She gets to the bus stop at 6:30 a.m. The bus is supposed to come every 10 or 15 minutes. Sometimes, she says, it comes every 30 minutes.

What could you accomplish with the lost 20 minutes standing there in the rain? Waiting. That's another cost of poverty. You wait in lines. You wait at bus stops. You wait on the bus as it makes it way up Georgia Avenue, hitting every stop. No sense in trying to hurry when you are poor.

When you are poor, you wait.

I take public transit to the office every day. It takes me an hour each way. Most of the people in our office do the same. When I take light rail, it's supposed to come every ten minutes. Twice this week, my car has been stuck for an extra ten minutes.

On top of this, I pay a crapload in taxes. So when's the article coming out about The Really High Cost of Working for a Living?

 

[dagobaz]

analyzing your collective statements on this thread i conclude that :

1) poor people suck, are lazy, and thus deserve to be poor and unimportant. Indeed, they deserve to be treated like crap, and to be forced to pay the bills by using 35 % payroll advance loans, because massa done outsourced da jobs, all the while bitching to high heaven about the "welfare queens" sucking the socialist tit, as he cashes the publicly-funded economic stimulus check, so graciously afforded him from the pound of flesh extracted from said welfare queen's children;

2) superior sorts never get unfair advantages, they simply "worked harder;"

3) none of you understands that accumulated wealth invariably leads to birthright aristocracy ... eg: GWB' s presidency;

4) your belief in the religious perfectabilty of man is just so much bullshit;

5) we are doomed, because none of you accept that those who know the truth about life have a responsibility to lead, rather than screw over your brother (or his really hot, tho untermensch wife) for a few shekels.

6) reality is when it happens to you.

 

[426653478]

most of the wealth on this planet is created through automated machines (biological or mechanical). In order to create wealth, more than 90% of the work is done by nature and machines, and less than 10% is done by humans, as we learn to automate tasks the need for human work (mental or physical) decreases

most people in this world work doing hardly anything, sometimes useless tasks, their job has almost no meaning other than circulating money, people high up in the social pyramid know this, but middle class fool themselves into thinking all of their wealth came from their own efforts

people don't get higher paying jobs mainly because they work harder or have better skills or are smarter, it is mainly because we create barriers to entry, we build complex systems, and complex rules, to make it harder for those not one of us to earn like us, that is how we create the pyramids we do