Why poor people stay poor - A true story
I have a co-worker who lives in a part of town that I won’t even visit and drives a car whose roadworthyness is questionable at best (think Planes, Trains & Automobiles). This co-worker doesn’t own a DVD player because it is too expensive and has been begging me for a used child car seat. He also receives government assistance for his wife’s medical bills when she got her stomach stapled. They cut coupons and drive all over the city to find the best deals. They are not going to a friend’s out of town wedding because it will cost about $200 for food, gas and a room.
Ok, they don’t have alot of dough, right?
My co-worker also owns two George Forman Grills, because they are so cool. After stomach staple surgery (paid for by taxpayers such as you and me), his wife celebrated by spending $75 on a Lobster and Steak dinner at Alexanders, even though she could only eat a tablespoon worth of food before puking it back up all over herself. (He also got a steak.) They went to Disney with some of their family and a friend. Who paid for the whole thing including airfare, via charge card? You guessed it. Their house has been refinanced more times than I’ve moved in my lifetime, all in an effort to wipe out their credit cards which mysteriously keep getting built up again and the car that is lucky to start in the morning will take 30 years to pay off.
So what do I learn today? After begging me for a car seat that they can’t afford, they just spent over $1,000 on a 300 Gallon Fish Tank!
Ironically, I just bought a new fish tank for my girls over weekend. It hold 10 gallons.
August 28th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
That reminds me of a co-worker at my previous job. She was always complaining about “having” to work because it’s just so hard to make ends meet on only one income, and how much she really wanted to stay home with her kids. She just couldn’t understand how my wife was able to stay home to raise our kids on only one (my) income. This was about the same time that her husband got a brand new 2-ton truck and, not to be outdone, she got a brand new Mitsubishi Spider. She and her husband had recently built their own home on a large private lot. When we went to their house for a Christmas party, I discovered they had a very expensive entertainment center, complete with large-screen TV and a very expensive cable package. These aren’t the choices of a person who really wants the financial freedom to stay home with the kids.
August 28th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
With all due respect, I don’t think one should paint all economically depressed people with the same brush at one irresponsible individual. The majority of poor people work hard to provide for their families and do not go out buying frivolous items. I’m not saying that poor, irresponsible people don’t exist! But most poor people live in areas where the factories have closed and the only jobs in town are minimum wages. Try feeding a family on that. Or, people who have been financially devastated by medical bills. There are so many scenarios of poor people that do not fit into the stereotype you describe.
I’ve witnessed in my life and job more “middle class” and “upper class” people who are thousands, tens of thousands and even millions in debt because they spend more that they can afford on frivolous and unnecessary “keeping up with the Jones” items. The only difference between them and the poor person you are describing in this situation is… well nothing. Irresponsibility is the same if you have $1 in the bank or if you have $1000.
Just my 2-cents.
August 28th, 2006 at 3:40 pm
Is it safe to assume that you don’t like my title?
August 29th, 2006 at 9:36 am
Girl has a point - not all poor people are poor because they’re monetarily irresponsible or make bad choices. Some get screwed. Some don’t HAVE choices.
But oy are there a lot of people out there who do what you describe. I met not one, not two, but THREE families in one block on the south side (near the Mission) who were on public assistance and food stamps WHO HAD SATELLITE TELEVISION. Dude, *I* don’t have satellite (or cable) TV! I choose not to have pay TV because I have student loans to pay off. They choose to pay for television EVEN THOUGH they can’t afford to feed their children. I swear to God, I wanted to slap them.
I’m sort-of torn between “that is the dumbest decision ever and it’s all their fault!” and “but what if they don’t know any different?” (not “any better” but “any different.”) I was going through the Jr. League archives working on a story for the Julep, and they had a project back before WWII where they taught poor mothers how to make a layette for the baby. They had noticed that a lot of the women coming to the maternity center the League ran didn’t dress their babies decently, and there was some wondering of, “Why do these women choose not to dress their children decently?”
Well, as it turned out, they didn’t know HOW. They couldn’t afford made clothes, they couldn’t afford (still-novel and still-expensive) store-bought clothes, and they didn’t know how to sew well enough to make baby clothes! So the League ran a “making a layette” program through the maternity center. I’m sure some women decided dressing their babies in rags was a better use of their time and effort, but some took the opportunity to learn to clothe their children.
Which brings me back around to the folks with satellite TV. If South Side Mission (I pick on them because they were so local to the block in question; it could be anyone) had a program on responsible budgeting with one-on-one financial counseling that ALSO took into account the fact that a lot of these families don’t know how to entertain themselves without television (too dangerous to play outside; low literacy levels; no library w/in walking distance), or cook from scratch w/o fast or convenience foods, or do other “simple” tasks that most “live frugal” guides take for granted … how many families would then take advantage of the program and make some frugal changes?
And slightly different note - CJ, have you read “Affluenza”? It’s about the how affluence is sort of like a contagious disease — people make choices they KNOW are bad choices but they’re so influenced by advertising, “keeping up with the Joneses,” the quick high of material satisfaction, the emptiness of their spiritual or internal lives, etc., that they make the bad choices anyway. Sounds like your co-worker has a serious case of affluenza.
(I always come down with a touch of affluenza at Target and Bed Bath and Beyond. How many table linens do I really need????? What is my problem?????)
August 29th, 2006 at 10:26 am
Everyone’s financial situation is different. And there’s a lot of poor people who work hard, make good choices and earn an honest living. With a little good fortune, they will climb out of that financial dispair.
But there’s a lot of people out there making foolish decisions (which they probably know better as well). Paying for satellite TV over their own children’s dinner is one of them. Owning 2 SUVs when you could get by with 1 Saturn sedan. And it can get even worse; a lot of people throw their money away on drugs, booze, cigerettes, etc. You could give them a tax free $1 million and it would be spent in a year. These people will always be poor.
There’s an old saying: It’s not he who has little who is poor, but he who wants more who is poor.
September 5th, 2006 at 7:02 pm
Good Post-
There are poor people and there are people who want to milk the system for everything we will provide. Poor people that work minimum wage jobs and have 5 kids are not being responsible, and living on welfare and driving a Lincoln Navigator is not being responsible. There is a judgement call that comes into place with the two groups. Do I have any common sense? Poor people make bad judgements, plain and simple…My factory closed…get another job. I have medical bills and I have disablities…you can breath, get a job. One thing that both groups have in common..is another excuse.
February 21st, 2007 at 2:27 pm
u no this is all a lie u guys are amitures
February 21st, 2007 at 2:28 pm
i MEAN IT THIS IS NOT TRUE !!!!
February 21st, 2007 at 2:32 pm
YUO PEOPLE ARE SO CRUEL PUT YOUR SELF IN THERE PLACE AND ACTUALLY THINK ABOUT IT CUZ YOU APERENTLY DONT HAVE A BIG ENOUGH BRAIN TO THINK PROBLEY SMALLER THAN A DIME IF YOU PEOPLE ARE CRUEL ENOGH TO POST THAT I BET YOUR CRUEL ENOUGH TO MURDER YOUR OWN FAMILY!!!
AND NO THATS NOT A THREAT IM JUST TELLING YOU THAT IT IS RALLY MEAN
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:44 pm
I swear some of you people live under a rock!!!! I am a hard worker and up until last year I was doing well… not great but well.
I came from a poor family and worked my tail off to provide for my wife and I. long hours, weekends and holidays. I now am lucky to pay my bills due to the stumbling economy. the factory I was employed at laid off more than 50% of its work force and it took me forever to find a new job with the way things are going. I don’t ask anyone for a damned thing, but yet I see people who live in 250K homes crying poverty…. give me a break. I work changing oil for a 10 minute oil change place now and got reduced to part time because the economy is diving even further…. but I still do not ask for help. the one thing I ask is those that have not been there just shut the hell up!!! let us do our jobs. think about the fact that its hard workers who put 10 hours a day under your car because you think you are too good to do it.
June 18th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Mayda… don’t speak you just sound really dumb.
I agree some families make poor choices but, what about the families who are truly struggling with the bare essentials. I myself struggle from paycheck to paycheck but, I’m also able to pay my bills on time and make my mortgage. Not all are the same.
July 27th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
It my opinion that we are poor because it our choice not to change our financial and social status. We had no control over the way we came into this world, but just because my family didn’t have much is not an reason but only an excuse. My mother raised 7 children in one of Taft Homes, we struggled and it was hard but we all grew up and have made lives for ourselves. But not one of us decided that we would stay in Taft Homes for the rest of our lives.
Taft Homes became a means of enabling my mother to live comfortable based upon her income. When our family income increased, my mother sought means of bettering the family. I encourage each and everyone of us to reach inside of ourselves and pull ourselves up and develop the person within ourselves. I don’t envy what someone has when I can have it also, If I apply myself.