A great article about choices - Why Poor People Buy TVs

[libertarian4321]

I have a friend who use to work for a cable provider, and the stories he told me....

Customer, "but my power will be cut off. I have children."
Friend, "Then you can't afford cable and you shouldn't have it. Having power and keeping your children warm(it's winter) is more important than cable."

I'm going to call BS on your friend's alleged conversation.

If any cable representative said  "Then you can't afford cable and you shouldn't have it," it would be his last day as a cable representative.

These folks do everything they can to keep you on hooked on cable, especially now that so many are "cord cutting."  They'd sooner sell their mother to a band of marauding pirates than tell you "you shouldn't have cable."

BTW, I've used similar "sob stories" to get my cable bill reduced.  Just give them a good poverty story, tell them you will cancel (or better yet, go to a competitor) if they can't meet your price, and they will almost always play ball.  Cause 100% of $50 is better for Time Warner than 0% of $100.

[Cowardly Toaster]

Many people are poor because they (often subconsciously) enforce poverty on themselves. Heck, I've made my share of bad financial decisions. This doesn't just apply to the poor. It applies to middle class and upper classes as well. Middle class people tend to stay middle class because they place blocks on themselves from entering the higher classes, often by thwarting themselves financially.

I think this is true; the same way 99% of middle classers think about buying cars with credit, 99% of lower economic classes think about what they can get in the present.  It's also wanting to be like your social group and social positioning.  Yes, there is a "bad" side of the trailer park, I had friends who grew up on that side!

Another behavior that may be perplexing to the  middle class is the profound generosity between friends and family in the poorer economic classes.  It is very common place for a friend, sibling, etc to help you out if you're coming up short on rent (or offer a couch because it's already too late) thanks to a bad weekend at the casino... It's kind of expected, a form of insurance, next time it'll be your turn to help.  There is very much a mentality of "spend your money while you can", and this in the US with very stable institutions. Thoughts of the future are too grim and are avoided or glamorized (when I hit the jackpot, I'll...), so Carpe Diem.

Well I'm glad we're having a rational discussion about poverty. It's difficult to have a discussion like this because there isn't a "silver bullet" or easy answer to it. Conservatives cry "personal responsibility", liberals say "more welfare!" but it seems there's a lot more to it those simple explanations.

[FIRE Artist]

This thread brings to mind a quote I heard just on Sense8 on Netflix.  One character asks the other why she sees in the slums of India and Africa that people will not have a real bed in their dwelling, but they will have a TV.  The response was that a bed keeps you in the slums, a TV transports you out of the slums. 

Escapism is why people prioritize a TV. 

[Cowardly Toaster]

This thread brings to mind a quote I heard just on Sense8 on Netflix.  One character asks the other why she sees in the slums of India and Africa that people will not have a real bed in their dwelling, but they will have a TV.  The response was that a bed keeps you in the slums, a TV transports you out of the slums. 

Escapism is why people prioritize a TV.

That is insightful. TV is a drug just as much as alcohol or weed or meth, all of which are favored by people looking to get away from their problems.

[Gunny]

Many people are poor because they (often subconsciously) enforce poverty on themselves. Heck, I've made my share of bad financial decisions. This doesn't just apply to the poor. It applies to middle class and upper classes as well. Middle class people tend to stay middle class because they place blocks on themselves from entering the higher classes, often by thwarting themselves financially.

I think this is true; the same way 99% of middle classers think about buying cars with credit, 99% of lower economic classes think about what they can get in the present.  It's also wanting to be like your social group and social positioning.  Yes, there is a "bad" side of the trailer park, I had friends who grew up on that side!

Another behavior that may be perplexing to the  middle class is the profound generosity between friends and family in the poorer economic classes.  It is very common place for a friend, sibling, etc to help you out if you're coming up short on rent (or offer a couch because it's already too late) thanks to a bad weekend at the casino... It's kind of expected, a form of insurance, next time it'll be your turn to help.  There is very much a mentality of "spend your money while you can", and this in the US with very stable institutions. Thoughts of the future are too grim and are avoided or glamorized (when I hit the jackpot, I'll...), so Carpe Diem.

Well I'm glad we're having a rational discussion about poverty. It's difficult to have a discussion like this because there isn't a "silver bullet" or easy answer to it. Conservatives cry "personal responsibility", liberals say "more welfare!" but it seems there's a lot more to it those simple explanations.

There is no easy answer, but we as a society seem to want easy answers.  I'm a conservative and believe that our national social programs are a colossal failure.  We treat said programs as a hand out as opposed to leg up and out of poverty.  If our social programs were successful, then poverty rolls would have shrunk since the Johnson administration instead of growing.   Im from Appalachia (ground zero for Johnson's Great Society initiative) and I speak from experience from watching members of my own extended family make one poor life decision after another.  Drugs, alcohol, complacency, and what my grandmother called lack of gumption, keep them from having a better life while social programs continue to provide them just enough to rob them of the incentive to do better.  I'm not saying that social programs should be eliminated.  We do have those in our society that legitimately cannot do for themselves.  It is our responsibility to care for these folks and provide incentives to do better for those that can.  But from what I've seen, I'm convinced that our social programs are horribly mismanaged and exploited by those who could do better resulting in crippling national debt.