Modern Poverty Includes A.C. and an Xbox

Here in Venezuela, the poor are lucky to have a roof, a fully functional roof. Most are made of zinc, wich just crumbles to rain and heavy sun. Of course there's the poor minded, that live under those conditions but have a Blackberry. Or can't pay the light/water/gas but can pay their BB's plan.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by NadaCambia

 

And therein lies the problem with why poor people stay poor and rich people stay rich. Do you really believe it is "cheaper" to live off microwave meals than it is to cook something at home?

Take your Stouffer's and Hot Pockets budget and apply it to some real food like rice, and beans, and canned goods, and see how much fuller your cabinets stay! When I was young and single, I could live for a month on $30 worth of ramen noodles, eggs, and cheese! I bet $30 of Hot Pockets won't last you a week!

I recommend reading.......
** The Millionairre Next Door ** as a start.

Who do you think spends more money on shoes, Millionairres or Poor People?
Who do you think spends more on cars?
Who do you think spends more on furniture?
Why do you suppose those kids from wealthy families do so well for themselves?

They learn to buy quality instead of quantity. There is an old saying about shoes. "A $200 pair of shoes lasts exactly twice as long as a $100 pair, but a $400 pair lasts a lifetime!"

The same can be said for furniture, or suits.

Millionairres rarely by "new" cars. They buy 2 and 3 year old cars. Millionairres rarely move from house to house. They buy a quality home, and they keep it and pay it off, and realize the appreciation in the Real Estate.

You are going to flame me, and I understand it, but it doesn't negate the fact that.....to a certain extent.....being poor is a lifestyle.

I don't believe, I know it's cheaper to live off crap. You just told me yourself you ate noodles, eggs and cheese for $30 a motnh, that's crap and cheap. Btw, $30 in 2011 won't even buy you enough cheese to last a month! A block of cheddar is about $10 a pop

And millionaires spend more on shoes, cars, furniture and houses. A poor person cannot afford to buy a quality home, keep it and pay it off. They can't even afford to rent a quality home, if they're lucky they can get a mortgage on a crap house in a crap area and spend their entire life time paying it off.

Being poor is not a lifestyle. It's determined by income. If you don't have quality income no matter what your mindset you'll always live in poverty.

reply to post by SevenBeans


Yes you could build it, but could you pay for the permits to do so?

And could you build it to code?

You can't simply crap behind a tree, that's disgusting and spreads disease. Neither is an outhouse acceptable: your unfiltered sewage contaminates the water supply. So you need a septic tank at least. Are you claiming that isn't capital intensive to someone who's too broke to afford rent?

Reality sucks.

Don't you think that with a few million homeless, a few tens of thousands wouldn't be going that route if they could?

Squatting is illegal pretty much everywhere in this country, and even if you could rent or buy the land, you still have to build to code or it will be condemned. I know a guy evicted from a treehouse he built because it wasn't to code, although it was a nifty 3-story house.

reply to post by Cuervo


Thanks for that.

As for the rest of my post, go read the book. It is based off decades of research.

Or, for that matter, try it for yourself. See how long a table from Target, or a table from O'Sullivan's lasts and how much it costs. Then see what your total cost over 40 years is for that table requirement. Then compare that cost to buying a high quality table from an antique store, or a high-end furniture store and maintaining it with polish and care for 40 years. You'll be surprised. Over the useful life, you will have a much nicer table, and an heirloom for your children, and you will spend less money.

Now the problem is getting that upfront cost. You will never be able to afford that nice antique table if you keep buying the cheap ones to get buy for now. You will have to make a sacrifice. You will have to say, "We can live without a table for a year or two, until we can save and pay cash for the right one."

Just think, if you make that sacrifice with everything. If you do without, and save, and then buy high quality, and you teach that approach to your kids, and you avoid cheap credit, and cheap merchandise, then by the end of your life, you will have an array of very high quality heirlooms to pass on to your children. Your friends will be jealous, your kids will have a little boost to their own collection, and you will save money!

--------------------------------------------------
I've experimented and begun this for myself. Instead of buying a $40 pair of work shoes this last time, I polished mine, and made them last another 6 months until I could afford a $150 pair. Then, I researched on the internet, and I visited my local cobbler store, an I bought about a $600 pair of shoes refurbished for $150. The cobbler can fix anything on them. Now, forever, I will be wearing the nicest shoes in any office. If I make a presentation to a board of executives somewhere, I will have the nicest shoes in the room! My next challenge is to do the same thing with a suit. Instead of buying the 2 for $99 deal. I will scrounge and make do, until I can buy a $1200 suit, used, and have it tailored to my body, and I will probably pay several hundred dollars, but that suit will last me a lifetime, and it will always be the nicest suit in the room. It won't take long before people think I am living rich, when in reality I am spending less than they are!

reply to post by apacheman


The vast majority of the "rich" people, as categorized by the government in this society are small business owners and that is a fact. They are considered rich because the classify their business income as personal income. A business making $500K/year does not translate into personal income of $500k/year, based on the margin of the business would typically be between $50K - $125k. These are the folks who hire 80% of the folks in the country and in order to bring to frution more social welfare schemes are the folks who will pay the lions share of the bill.

I live in South Africa where I have been pretty blessed (I live by the beautiful ocean of the cape coast, have a good job, recent expenses include a HD computer monitor at R2k(exchance rate will put it at about $250) which I think would be quite costly in America, but I have been quite blessed), but the is only a small part of the country and overall the contrast between rich and poor is shocking and nearly 40-50 of the population barely have basic services like running water and electricity.

All in all, I'd happily trade anything for the living conditions that ill get in America, sure you have your ups and downs, but per capita you really get good quality of life if your willing to work and it can't be compared to lil countries in europe.

Be proud damnit.

ETA: actually I believe the improvements in basic services have been staggeringly increased, the maintenance and administration are the only problems. Let's just say 40% live in pure poverty.

Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?!

Originally posted by DZAG Wright
How many people will survive a Maine winter in a cabin they built themselves....quick and cheaply...

Probably not very many (certainly not very many of the largely mentally ill homeless) because most people have no idea how to be self reliant. However, for someone of sound mind and body it's not as hard as people make it out to be. It is possible to live comfortably on a very small amount of money.

reply to post by NadaCambia


You're wrong, but I won't be able to convince you.

You can read the books, read the studies, but you probably won't believe it.

You are doomed to your lifestyle. If you really wanted to get a leg up, you might go find a millionairre and ask them. You might find a mentor and emulate them. You might read the books and test the theories. You might just sit down with a calculator and decide for yourself, but you won't.

I know for a fact that I feed my family of 4 on about $80 worth of groceries per week. My wife even has a gluten intolerance, so we have to buy specialty food. We don't eat crap, we eat good meals with a variety of foodgroups. We have occasional ice cream and candy. We drink sweet tea and kool-aid. If I were single today, I could live off less than $80 per month for food. I wouldn't, because I don't have to, but I could. If I was even smarter than myself, I would live even more frugally, and I would pay off even more things, but I balance my frugalness with my zest for life. I'm lucky to have that luxury, but I feel I've earned it.

Yeah what is the point?

The poor should give up any luxury they have so the rich can enjoy them only?

Just a douche article of brain washing crap.

reply to post by getreadyalready


$400 shoes?

Get real.

A $10/hr job pays $400 a week gross, fulltime. With luck, it clears $300. A crap apartment costs at least $900 a month in my locality. 20 gallons of gas costs $72.80 this week. Add in monthly bills, insurance, and food, and you're in deficit territory.

So it's a choice not to buy $400 a pair shoes?

Even at $20/hr that's a ridiculously out-of-reach price.

Tell you what:

You live for a year, hell, six months, strictly on a minimum wage income after taxes, no credit cards, no cds, no trust funds, just the minimum wage.

Then you tell me how easy the poor have it.

Originally posted by apacheman
Yes you could build it, but could you pay for the permits to do so?

And could you build it to code?

Oh man that's funny... there are no permits or codes up where this guy lives, there isn't even any local government, you don't even live in a "town" it's so sparsely populated.

Originally posted by apacheman
You can't simply crap behind a tree, that's disgusting and spreads disease. Neither is an outhouse acceptable: your unfiltered sewage contaminates the water supply. So you need a septic tank at least. Are you claiming that isn't capital intensive to someone who's too broke to afford rent?

You think we have people following bears around with bags? Seriously... you don't need a septic tank at all and it can be perfectly healthy. Ten minutes of research...

reply to post by dolphinfan


I agree. No kid should have to suffer with an xbox when the new thing is xbox 360.

Won't you help donate 1 dollar a day to help these needy children?

Imagine you are a child and billy your neighbor is laughing because he has Halo 3 and you can only play Halo the original.

Please call and help the needy today. For every day that goes by, another kid is forced to play their old Xbox.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/48d71edecc17.jpg[/atsimg]

Originally posted by haarvik
reply to post by apacheman

 

It's not their fault their parents worked hard to earn that money. Look at Warren Buffet. He started investing at a young age and now he has it made. So he's evil because he was smart? So many other examples like this that just make your position look ignorant. While I agree that the banking elite and the likes of the fed are the problem to most issues, the people who worked hard and smart to achieve wealth are not evil. I don't feel they need to give back, pay it forward or whatever the new buzzword is for spreading the wealth. They earned it, no one else did.

Of course the left forget that he isn't giving his kids the 'rich kid' break, and he is donating all of his wealth once he dies.. or that he really isn't all that lavish. oooh noo.. can't actually bring that little nugget up.



The whole 'haves vs have nots' debate has been going on since the dawn of time. Some work hard for what they have, some like to suck of the teet of socity. Same song, different decade.

Some will always scream "THE RICH THE RICH' but didn't the government lower what "rich" means. Isn't it now considered anyone making over 200,000 a year? What the real worry I have is, what happens when they actually lower the "rich" amount. What then?

Sooner or later the real middle income people will be the real target. And when that happens.. then what?

Originally posted by sligtlyskeptical
reply to post by dolphinfan

 

Poor people have refrigerators? Oh boy! They have cell phones (instead of land line?) so they can actually hold jobs. Oh boy! They have a $1000 worth of stuff to keep them entertained. Oh boy!

Sounds so good that everyone should hope to be poor! I sure hope the OP is poor and can enjoy such a great life.

Two big thumbs down on this hateful post against 'poor" people. I see hundreds each day, with no roof over their head, no ac, no assets, nothing. I sure haven't seen any playstation under those bridges either.

The truth. Bravo! I would give you 10 stars for that if I could.

reply to post by apacheman


I've lived plenty of time at minimum wage. The saying was an old addage, it wasn't mine, but it is still relavent.

I know it is extremely difficult for someone in those conditions to buy a pair of $400 shoes. So instead, they buy $40 shoes, every 6 months, for years and years. Who spends more? Besides, one can buy a $400 pair of shoes at a cobbler for probably $100 or less. I saw a very nice pair at a Good Will store for $35!

Now, those are dress shoes. What about someone in a factory or on a job site? A pair of decent work boots at
Wal Mart is an easy $60 and they won't last a year. A pair of decent Red Wings is $225, and they will last several years, plus they will have the added benefit of less back and leg pain! I used to work 15 hour shifts on a concrete floor, and I can guarantee that it only takes one shift to see the difference!!

It boils down to being savvy, and getting educated on other possibilities. A poor person from a poor family never learns these lessons. They keep perpetuating the same mistakes. A kid from a rich family learns how to maintain the wealth. I never said it was simple, and in fact it requires a lot of sacrifice, especially in the beginning, but one does not have to doom themselves, or their kids to a lifetime of serfdom. There are other options.

reply to post by SevenBeans


So he's stealing someone else's resources he didn't pay for? Nice guy. Hope he has permission to be where he is, because if anyone finds out and he doesn't, he'll be evicted. Every bit of land within the US is owned by someone, and resides in a county under county building codes. They may be loose and sketchy, but there's not a place without them.

reply to post by getreadyalready


if someone has to ask other people how to create wealth or become rich or even have a moderate lifestyle

that comes from within with the person not being happy with the way his life is going they take it upon themselves

much like you did not to settle for they way things are.

they make things happen and they blame noone else for the things they dont have and they dont sit on their couchs waiting for everything to be given to them.

those who can do those who cant just cry about it.

reply to post by dolphinfan


So many people hating on the poor again, lol. If you step back and try to see the whole picture, you can see how subtle yet effective the propoganda is. TPTB want to make sure that there is always something irking us about the rest of the population. Be it gay, poor, racial, whatever. They always find ways to try to plant the seeds of ignorance.

There is no shame in being poor. There are some that abuse systems, of course, and while it makes a person feel high and mighty to sit back and poopoo everyone on assistance, or everyone that is poor, you really have no way of knowing who is really poor through no fault of their own, and who is playing poor to abuse a system. And if you can't know who is who, then you cant really make comments about it.
And of those that could be earning more and dont, you dont know what might have happened in their lives to make them that way. Abuse, neglect, trauma, bad parenting. Mental illness. So if you dont know who deserves your scorn, and you dont know why they deserve it, why not let it go. Let it go and let God/fate/karma/whatever sort it out for you. Life will be better if you let others be, and choose to not let it affect you. Yes, it is crappy that some of you work hard and long hours, just to end up with the same stuff as someone that doesnt appear to you to be working at all. why do you care? Why cant you just be pleased with yourself and grateful that you have the physical and mental capacity to be so independant.

As for the possessions of the poor? It is a very misleading list. I am poor, on assistance for the summer until school starts. I was not always poor, once had a spouse that worked as well. All the nice things I have are from then, and even at that they arent worth much. I have a wii that i bought used as a christmas gift for my kids, aying barely a fraction of what it is worth. Their clothes are second hand or handmade, our tv was a throw away from a family member, i have internet and cell phone, as i had been running a business before TSHTF, and still try to. The business pays for those things, i am under contract. I cancelled the sattellite as i did not have a contract on that. ANd i need those things to keep working the business, as it involves a very lot of emailing high res photos. Point is, you cant eat posessions, cant wear them or take shelter in them, so they really arent a way to measure a person's wealth or success. anyone could have what i have if you watch the dumpsters and flea markets and yard sales.

reply to post by Cuervo


Speaking of carrots... LMAO!!! I do my one-stop shopping at Walmart every week. For the past three weeks... everytime I went to the produce department to grab a bag of whole unpeeled carrots... the shelf was empty. Lots of expensive peeled baby carrots in bags... but no big fat juicy carrots that I could shove in my fat face... and there was no cabbage. I love cabbage stew and Walmart seems to be having some kind of a cabbage/carrot crisis. They've got plenty of prepped bags of vegies that are more costly... but I'm noticing that there are fewer and fewer of the cheaper unprepped vegies being offered on their shelves. Being that it's summer... I think they're chopping it all up for slaw. Anyways... my point for all this babble is this... there isn't anything more nutritional than a bowl of cold cabbage stew on a hot sultry night before hitting the sack. And I'm really pissed that I haven't been able to do this for the past few weeks. Are you reading this Walmart???