7 ms·

What the quoted study showed was a lot of "did" and "didn't" behavior, but the article phrased it as "can't". There are some poor of whom it is literally true

What the quoted study showed was a lot of "did" and "didn't" behavior, but the article phrased it as "can't". There are some poor of whom it is literally true that they can't spend $24 on toilet paper. My local food bank gives out rolls of TP, and keeps nearly-empty rolls in the public bathrooms because rolls that are above half get stolen. Some of the clientele literally have every dollar for the month already spoken for, and $24 of TP is not in the budget. But for a lot of the poor, it's more accurate to say that spending $24 on toilet paper would interfere with other things they've chosen to spend on instead. It's not impossible to come up with $24, but they'd rather spend it in other ways when they do. Now, it's not my place to say that a poor family should or shouldn't use a small surplus to become more efficient and generate bigger surplus later, when they could spend it on something with a more immediate psychological benefit (like a nicer-than-their-average meal). This isn't a judgment, it's just an observation. But I think it's an important observation to make, because the hidden implication is that an extra $20 a month would allow for a new efficiency (like buying TP in bulk/on sale) which would then snowball. But the reality is that an extra $20 a month rarely has anything close to its full potential effect on efficiency, for psychological reasons. Attempts to ease the inefficiencies of poverty need to account for this.

developer2 11y ago
I grew up on welfare, in a single parent home. Parent chainsmoked 2 packs a day, which barely left enough money for decent food let alone toilet paper. And yet, somehow, we stocked up on toilet paper when it was on sale.
- lotharbot 11y ago
  I have three people I point to for how different the experience can be. One friend was living on disability (about $570/month) and food stamps (about $140/month), in a group home. His one "luxury" was he'd buy GI-Joe figurines every month, for about $20. At one point he asked me to take him to the store because he wasn't going to be able to walk the 10+ blocks that day. As he was shopping, I realized he had something like 30 pounds of meat in his cart and almost nothing else. I told him to put half of it back and add a bag of potatoes, and that whenever he wanted to cook meat, cook half as much as he normally would and replace the rest with potatoes. It was life-changing for him -- he was able to eat every day, and had enough money left over to start buying things like toilet paper in bulk. I've since lost track of him, and I'm sure he's still poor, but he's a more secure grade of poor than he had been. Another friend was a divorced mom, recently remarried to a disabled man. She's unable to handle a full-time job, but works a few days a week as a substitute teacher. Between disability, child support, and work she makes maybe $1500 a month. She's always bought in bulk, usually splitting orders with her parents and siblings who live in the same complex. The only real escape from poverty she has is to recover from psychological trauma to the point that she can work full time. Third is a young couple, both just turned 20, and their son is 3 years old. He's had adequate work for a while, but hides financial information from her, they both have expensive phones they use for things my old prepaid Moto X can do for a lot lower price, and they both have a tendency to eat fast food even though he works at a grocery store that has a good selection and good prices. The two things that have kept them from disaster for the past year: I let them live in my basement for a token amount of rent that I stopped collecting after a few months, and his grandparents have helped them pay off a couple of surprise expenses. She recently found work, and with two incomes they're able to afford their own place fairly comfortably, but for a while there it looked like they were going to get into a bad cycle like the one detailed in the article.

developer2 11y ago

I grew up on welfare, in a single parent home. Parent chainsmoked 2 packs a day, which barely left enough money for decent food let alone toilet paper. And yet, somehow, we stocked up on toilet paper when it was on sale.

lotharbot 11y ago
I have three people I point to for how different the experience can be. One friend was living on disability (about $570/month) and food stamps (about $140/month), in a group home. His one "luxury" was he'd buy GI-Joe figurines every month, for about $20. At one point he asked me to take him to the store because he wasn't going to be able to walk the 10+ blocks that day. As he was shopping, I realized he had something like 30 pounds of meat in his cart and almost nothing else. I told him to put half of it back and add a bag of potatoes, and that whenever he wanted to cook meat, cook half as much as he normally would and replace the rest with potatoes. It was life-changing for him -- he was able to eat every day, and had enough money left over to start buying things like toilet paper in bulk. I've since lost track of him, and I'm sure he's still poor, but he's a more secure grade of poor than he had been. Another friend was a divorced mom, recently remarried to a disabled man. She's unable to handle a full-time job, but works a few days a week as a substitute teacher. Between disability, child support, and work she makes maybe $1500 a month. She's always bought in bulk, usually splitting orders with her parents and siblings who live in the same complex. The only real escape from poverty she has is to recover from psychological trauma to the point that she can work full time. Third is a young couple, both just turned 20, and their son is 3 years old. He's had adequate work for a while, but hides financial information from her, they both have expensive phones they use for things my old prepaid Moto X can do for a lot lower price, and they both have a tendency to eat fast food even though he works at a grocery store that has a good selection and good prices. The two things that have kept them from disaster for the past year: I let them live in my basement for a token amount of rent that I stopped collecting after a few months, and his grandparents have helped them pay off a couple of surprise expenses. She recently found work, and with two incomes they're able to afford their own place fairly comfortably, but for a while there it looked like they were going to get into a bad cycle like the one detailed in the article.