I saw this on my Google news feed today and I thought it was a joke at first but I think this guy is serious. Possibly the worst complainypants article I have seen in a long time so I had to share it here...
Thanks, that was an entertaining article. While I agree that the guy's holding himself back by whining instead of working towards solutions, it is true that
having some money makes it easier to save money: You can stock up on chicken when it's on sale, allowing you to save money next week. You can fix your brakes before the rotors go bad. You can afford to dress decently for your job.
"That’s what makes being poor so tough. Sure, you can make choices that lighten the load on yourself, but the margin of error is much thinner. Meanwhile, the amount of extra work you have to do just to break even is much higher. You could spend tens of hours each week trying to optimize every dime in your budget, just to have one mistake ruin you for a month.
I do agree with that. I remember once in college I (foolishly) left a textbook unattended, and it was stolen. I cried and cried. This was a point in my life when I was literally going hungry sometimes, and losing that book marked my realization that I couldn't make it with just one job.
It's generally accepted among people who study it (economists, sociologists, etc) that being poor is a dangerous trap. It might make you feel better to pretend that someone could save just as much as you if they had no money, car, connections, and couldn't pick where they lived. Unfortunately, there is no evidence to support it. We are all very lucky to have the options that we do.
No, I don't think anyone actually believes that the poor could save just as much as a middle class family
if only they'd just buck up and try harder! Excluding the random millionaire librarian, starting with less means finishing with less. Rather, many people could save more than they are managing to save now. Or, if they employed more long-term planning strategies, they could work their way out of poverty. It's true for at least some. Back when I was poor,
I thought I was doing everything I could; looking back with more years under my belt, I can see that I ignored some choices that would've helped me dig my way out faster.
I dare say most of you have NEVER "worn through" a pair of shoes (unless you are aged 80+ and remember the days when shoes had thin, leather soles).
I'm nowhere near 80, but I've worn plenty of shoes all the way through. I used to be very good at "doctoring up" my shoes: Ideally you want a three-layer insole -- the bottommost layer should be a thin, laminated plastic like a flexible plastic notebook cover (I'd search through trash cans at the end of the semester when people were tossing their old notebooks) or a food box, the middle layer should be a plastic milk carton, and the layer nearest your foot should be corrugated cardboard. The worst is when it rains; once the cardboard's been wet a couple times, you have to make new insoles. Of course, the whole set-up needs replacing about every week or two anyway; you can't expect much from cardboard. And when you're wearing cardboard in your shoes, you have to keep your feet flat on the floor in class so no one can see your soles.
"Nickled and Dimed" is one of my favorite examples of how a CLUELESS, RICH, WHITE LIBERAL WOMAN PLAYING "POOR" will fail at being poor.
Yeah, that's the book I read! The author had no idea HOW poor people "make do" and made no effort to learn. But I don't think she failed. She set out with the idea that her task was impossible, and -- sure enough -- she made it true. She succeeded at exactly what she wanted to do.
to read the Tighwad Gazette books was a life changer for us.
Yes, I realized that I didn't want to live as an adult like I had as a child, and reading /gathering information about HOW to make my money go further was Step One for me. The Tightwad Gazette was one of the first books I read, and it's an excellent resource.