7 ms·

> She lit a home-rolled cigarette and, getting to work with a mattock, tried to ignore the weather. She had lately been telling herself that she had to stop tak

> She lit a home-rolled cigarette and, getting to work with a mattock, tried to ignore the weather. She had lately been telling herself that she had to stop taking these risks. They were more than an hour from the nearest hospital, and what if she had another heart attack? Yeah...she seems to be ignoring the heart-attack risk she is pumping into her lungs while she says that. I get that it's an addiction that is hard to kick, but come on. If you've already had quintuple bypass surgery, maybe it's time to give up smoking?

mrskitch 9y ago
I can relate to this sentiment, but you've got take into account the whole story: - Failing health, already has nearly died. - No safety net. - Risks life every time this voyage is made. - Doesn't have access to many resources. Here you have someone who doesn't have (what appears to be) working plumbing. Doesn't even have a _kitchen_ (just a hot pad). No assets or finances to speak of. Likely no support network. On top of all of that you want them to tackle a nearly impossible task of giving up addiction? I'll note that many many people with all the resources in the world cannot break addiction, let alone someone with nearly no resources. Definitely not wise for her to continue with her habits as they are. But given the amount of stress and pressure, along with impending doom, some semblance of mercy should be exercised. It's not like she already doesn't have other major problems requiring her attention
- riot504 9y ago
  I view smoking as a kind of break from life. It has a calming effect. Many people smoked during my deployments to Iraq for the same reason - it calms you and allows a simple break otherwise not found. I don't smoke as the smell gives me a terrible headache but I understand the reasoning - particularly when life is hard.
  - Caveman_Coder 9y ago
    > "I view smoking as a kind of break from life. It has a calming effect. Many people smoked during my deployments to Iraq for the same reason - it calms you and allows a simple break otherwise not found. .." I found this to be the same reason why many of my fellow shipmates smoked during my time in the Navy. It was a kind of pre-watch "bonding" session of sorts...We'd smoke our cigs, grab a quick bite from the galley, then relieve the watch...our pre-watch smoke was a kind of "shoot-the-shit" before we had to be serious and formal operators.
    - riot504 9y ago
      I did air traffic control at Balad. At that time it was considered one of the most complex and busiest air-spaces in the world, paraphrased from the president of O'Hare. Obviously, we didn't see combat or deal with life altering experiences but it was balls to the wall intense for 8 hours a day. At the time I even smoked a few Camels during breaks. Certainly a way to bond with a fellow controller during a break.
      - vuln 9y ago
        Thank you for your service. I did some time at good ol JBB in 08-09. This is when I first started smoking. First I was bumming here and there, then in order to not feel like a bum I bought a pack and slowly the pack would disappear faster and faster... I smoked for four years (At peak a pack a day) and gave it up cold turkey. Lots of wasted money.
        riot504 9y ago
        I was there a year prior in the fall of 07. I rarely smoked, at most 1 - 3 a day and usually just when controlling - sometimes I didn't cause I hate the after smell. Glad you were able to quit! Aside from health, the money certainly adds up.
    - aphextron 9y ago
      Smokin' and Jokin'. About the only part of the service I miss.
  - hallalex831 9y ago
    Smoking does not actually have calming effects. It only relieves the feeling of withdrawal cause by smoking in the first place.
javajosh 9y ago
This article makes plain that she, and everyone she knows are, economically speaking, dead-men walking. And there is a certain dignity offering someone a smoke before they accept their doom. The question that plagues me is: can I give her a job? What could this woman do, online or off, that would be valuable to society? Is Mechanical Turk, marketed to the rural poor, a solution?
- amigoingtodie 9y ago
  How would she connecto to the internet? Super expensive LTE or satellite connection, or overpriced Shentel cablemodem, or DSL, where upload will be less than 1Mbps.
- emperorcezar 9y ago
  You assume they have the resources to do online work, like an internet connection capable of doing so and the capital to get that connection before doing the work. Also a computer or phone capable of doing the work.
  - javajosh 9y ago
    Not sure why you got a downvote, because those are excellent points. However, I'm assuming the hopeful case where we can think of something valuable, in which case the capital cost of equipment and operational cost of connectivity would be an easy sell. For example, would you accept this woman as a remote personal digital assistance, willing to pay for her phone, internet, and an extra $100/mo to do stuff for you? What is the quality of the work you might expect? What sorts of work would she do? Answer the phone? Argue with your credit card company? Keep an eye on your projects? Are people that capable really hiding in the countryside?
- reaperducer 9y ago
  This is why West Virginia, North Dakota, Nevada, and other low-education states are magnets for call centers coming back onshore. They may be dumb as a brick in American terms, but they're able to function at a higher level than the average Indian call center employee, at a comparable salary, and they have the right accents.
notlisted 9y ago
Hmmm. Smoking is more cost-effective than eating in many parts of the USA. Plenty of research exists as well on the self-medication benefits of nicotine use (ADHD, depression, etc.)
thaumaturgy 9y ago
This kind of sentiment is exactly why more liberals need to read more articles like this one. If you've never lived that life, it's easy to sit back and proclaim for someone else how much better things might be for them if only they didn't do things the way they do. It makes it easy to dismiss their problems as entirely their own fault while we get to feel good about giving out some solid advice. Those cigarettes and that beer is what keeps her going every month. They are likely her only real source of meager happiness. She doesn't have Netflix. Internet. Literally, a toilet to piss into. She doesn't smoke them because she's addicted, she smokes them because they make her life, for a short term, a little tiny bit better. Y'ever notice how, the poorer people are, the worse their habits are? How they tend to eat more junk food, exercise less, spend more money on trivial things? Yeah, that's why. Healthy living is a luxury and an awful lot of folks have forgotten about that.
- lloyd-christmas 9y ago
  I hate to be the bearer of reality, but... This kind of sentiment is exactly why more [conservatives] need to read more articles like [some other expose about being poor, but in the city instead]. If you've never lived that life, it's easy to sit back and proclaim for someone else how much better things might be for them if only they didn't do things the way they do. It makes it easy to dismiss their problems as entirely their own fault while we get to feel good about giving out some solid advice. Those cigarettes and that beer is what keeps her going every month. They are likely her only real source of meager happiness. She doesn't have Netflix. Internet. Literally, a toilet to piss into. She doesn't smoke them because she's addicted, she smokes them because they make her life, for a short term, a little tiny bit better. Y'ever notice how, the poorer people are, the worse their habits are? How they tend to eat more junk food, exercise less, spend more money on trivial things? Yeah, that's why. Healthy living is a luxury and an awful lot of folks have forgotten about that.
- seem_2211 9y ago
  If we were honest, we'd find it very difficult to properly condemn the spending habits of the poor. I spent $20 on breakfast today for goodness sakes - that's probably more discretionary income than a lot of these folks have for a month. But that $20 of mine isn't really going to be missed, because I have a job that pays me an order of magnitude more than these folks earn. $700 a month to live on? That's what, 2 weeks rent for a single room in San Francisco. At a root level, living brings on a level of expenses. It varies from place to place, but no matter how frugal you are, there are some expenses you simply can't run from. Once you've passed that level, it's easy to save.
hestipod 9y ago
I will explain if you care to listen. Imagine you have no energy and are in pain all the time. A cup of coffee or a cigarette gives you a TINY respite. A few hours of feeling LESS worse. Then like all addictions you need more or you feel even worse. Suddenly it takes 5 cups of coffee a day just to not feel sicker and nobody wants to feel sicker when everything else about their life is horrible. Now extrapolate that to pain pills, sleeping pills, risky behavior of any sort. When you live day to day and have no safety any pleasure or escape has an immense draw. There is also an element to "who cares I am screwed anyway" that we face every single day. In the end you are judging people on some sterile, elevated point of view and it's not real life.
hestipod 9y ago
This is probably the last post I will make lest I be accused of spamming...and I am probably wasting my breath...but I want to put a human face on this. I am middle aged. I was strong and healthy and worked multiple jobs serving the community. I paid taxes and believed that if I needed help it would be there. I was ruined by unneeded and poorly done surgery I was scared into having and since then everything had rotted and faded as systems failed me and people turned on me. I live in severe pain daily with no healthcare beyond an income based primary care clinic for once or twice a year nonsense. I live trapped in the middle of nowhere with no public transport with the last people who will offer a bed and they did so to lord it over others and resent me daily. My meager partial pension covers my food and medication and the big expenses like a CT scan or surgery I have put off for years are ignored. I eat Walmart branded canned goods and cheap fresh stuff. I don't even have a computer anymore as mine and the backup from when I had a life gave up. Once someone donated an old one to me but it had issues and cost too much to fix. I use an external HD on a borrowed laptop I have irregular access to just to get online and have some exposure to the outside world. BTW the internet here is 1mpbs and irregular so add that to the mess. Imagine thinking daily of ending your life or deciding to run away to a cheaper place knowing it will be a dead end too sooner than later but you have no other hopes. Now...if you read all that. Imagine living that way. With nothing but scraps. Imagine seeing no hope. Imagine years go by losing more and more. Now imagine how buying some junk food or a beer or a lottery ticket or some other "waste of money" brings you just a tiny little escape or joy or moment to not suffer and hate everything. Imagine when you DO that people jump all over you judging you and making you feel worse. I don't know if you even can truly imagine living like that...but I hope you do and reconsider. We are human beings and not abstract objects. We want lives as much as you do. Please consider this next time you encounter this topic or someone you are put off by...despite what you probably think it could be you next.
- Diederich 9y ago
  Thank you for posting all of these. I am well off by most standards, and though I've made quite a few good decisions, there is no doubt that luck played, by far, the biggest part. The one positive thing I have to say to you is this: I hear you, and quite a few others hear you too, though we may well be a minority. We know that the foolish, smug attitudes displayed by many are largely attributes of genetic and environmental history. The only advise I can give you is straightforward: life will always be surprising, often in bad, but sometimes in good ways. It's virtually impossible to know what's coming up. So hang in there, if only to play the entire game that is, though unknown, before you.

mrskitch 9y ago

I can relate to this sentiment, but you've got take into account the whole story: - Failing health, already has nearly died. - No safety net. - Risks life every time this voyage is made. - Doesn't have access to many resources. Here you have someone who doesn't have (what appears to be) working plumbing. Doesn't even have a _kitchen_ (just a hot pad). No assets or finances to speak of. Likely no support network. On top of all of that you want them to tackle a nearly impossible task of giving up addiction? I'll note that many many people with all the resources in the world cannot break addiction, let alone someone with nearly no resources. Definitely not wise for her to continue with her habits as they are. But given the amount of stress and pressure, along with impending doom, some semblance of mercy should be exercised. It's not like she already doesn't have other major problems requiring her attention

riot504 9y ago
I view smoking as a kind of break from life. It has a calming effect. Many people smoked during my deployments to Iraq for the same reason - it calms you and allows a simple break otherwise not found. I don't smoke as the smell gives me a terrible headache but I understand the reasoning - particularly when life is hard.
- Caveman_Coder 9y ago
  > "I view smoking as a kind of break from life. It has a calming effect. Many people smoked during my deployments to Iraq for the same reason - it calms you and allows a simple break otherwise not found. .." I found this to be the same reason why many of my fellow shipmates smoked during my time in the Navy. It was a kind of pre-watch "bonding" session of sorts...We'd smoke our cigs, grab a quick bite from the galley, then relieve the watch...our pre-watch smoke was a kind of "shoot-the-shit" before we had to be serious and formal operators.
  - riot504 9y ago
    I did air traffic control at Balad. At that time it was considered one of the most complex and busiest air-spaces in the world, paraphrased from the president of O'Hare. Obviously, we didn't see combat or deal with life altering experiences but it was balls to the wall intense for 8 hours a day. At the time I even smoked a few Camels during breaks. Certainly a way to bond with a fellow controller during a break.
    - vuln 9y ago
      Thank you for your service. I did some time at good ol JBB in 08-09. This is when I first started smoking. First I was bumming here and there, then in order to not feel like a bum I bought a pack and slowly the pack would disappear faster and faster... I smoked for four years (At peak a pack a day) and gave it up cold turkey. Lots of wasted money.
      - riot504 9y ago
        I was there a year prior in the fall of 07. I rarely smoked, at most 1 - 3 a day and usually just when controlling - sometimes I didn't cause I hate the after smell. Glad you were able to quit! Aside from health, the money certainly adds up.
  - aphextron 9y ago
    Smokin' and Jokin'. About the only part of the service I miss.
- hallalex831 9y ago
  Smoking does not actually have calming effects. It only relieves the feeling of withdrawal cause by smoking in the first place.

javajosh 9y ago

This article makes plain that she, and everyone she knows are, economically speaking, dead-men walking. And there is a certain dignity offering someone a smoke before they accept their doom. The question that plagues me is: can I give her a job? What could this woman do, online or off, that would be valuable to society? Is Mechanical Turk, marketed to the rural poor, a solution?

amigoingtodie 9y ago
How would she connecto to the internet? Super expensive LTE or satellite connection, or overpriced Shentel cablemodem, or DSL, where upload will be less than 1Mbps.
emperorcezar 9y ago
You assume they have the resources to do online work, like an internet connection capable of doing so and the capital to get that connection before doing the work. Also a computer or phone capable of doing the work.
- javajosh 9y ago
  Not sure why you got a downvote, because those are excellent points. However, I'm assuming the hopeful case where we can think of something valuable, in which case the capital cost of equipment and operational cost of connectivity would be an easy sell. For example, would you accept this woman as a remote personal digital assistance, willing to pay for her phone, internet, and an extra $100/mo to do stuff for you? What is the quality of the work you might expect? What sorts of work would she do? Answer the phone? Argue with your credit card company? Keep an eye on your projects? Are people that capable really hiding in the countryside?
reaperducer 9y ago
This is why West Virginia, North Dakota, Nevada, and other low-education states are magnets for call centers coming back onshore. They may be dumb as a brick in American terms, but they're able to function at a higher level than the average Indian call center employee, at a comparable salary, and they have the right accents.

notlisted 9y ago

Hmmm. Smoking is more cost-effective than eating in many parts of the USA. Plenty of research exists as well on the self-medication benefits of nicotine use (ADHD, depression, etc.)

thaumaturgy 9y ago

This kind of sentiment is exactly why more liberals need to read more articles like this one. If you've never lived that life, it's easy to sit back and proclaim for someone else how much better things might be for them if only they didn't do things the way they do. It makes it easy to dismiss their problems as entirely their own fault while we get to feel good about giving out some solid advice. Those cigarettes and that beer is what keeps her going every month. They are likely her only real source of meager happiness. She doesn't have Netflix. Internet. Literally, a toilet to piss into. She doesn't smoke them because she's addicted, she smokes them because they make her life, for a short term, a little tiny bit better. Y'ever notice how, the poorer people are, the worse their habits are? How they tend to eat more junk food, exercise less, spend more money on trivial things? Yeah, that's why. Healthy living is a luxury and an awful lot of folks have forgotten about that.

lloyd-christmas 9y ago
I hate to be the bearer of reality, but... This kind of sentiment is exactly why more [conservatives] need to read more articles like [some other expose about being poor, but in the city instead]. If you've never lived that life, it's easy to sit back and proclaim for someone else how much better things might be for them if only they didn't do things the way they do. It makes it easy to dismiss their problems as entirely their own fault while we get to feel good about giving out some solid advice. Those cigarettes and that beer is what keeps her going every month. They are likely her only real source of meager happiness. She doesn't have Netflix. Internet. Literally, a toilet to piss into. She doesn't smoke them because she's addicted, she smokes them because they make her life, for a short term, a little tiny bit better. Y'ever notice how, the poorer people are, the worse their habits are? How they tend to eat more junk food, exercise less, spend more money on trivial things? Yeah, that's why. Healthy living is a luxury and an awful lot of folks have forgotten about that.
seem_2211 9y ago
If we were honest, we'd find it very difficult to properly condemn the spending habits of the poor. I spent $20 on breakfast today for goodness sakes - that's probably more discretionary income than a lot of these folks have for a month. But that $20 of mine isn't really going to be missed, because I have a job that pays me an order of magnitude more than these folks earn. $700 a month to live on? That's what, 2 weeks rent for a single room in San Francisco. At a root level, living brings on a level of expenses. It varies from place to place, but no matter how frugal you are, there are some expenses you simply can't run from. Once you've passed that level, it's easy to save.

hestipod 9y ago

I will explain if you care to listen. Imagine you have no energy and are in pain all the time. A cup of coffee or a cigarette gives you a TINY respite. A few hours of feeling LESS worse. Then like all addictions you need more or you feel even worse. Suddenly it takes 5 cups of coffee a day just to not feel sicker and nobody wants to feel sicker when everything else about their life is horrible. Now extrapolate that to pain pills, sleeping pills, risky behavior of any sort. When you live day to day and have no safety any pleasure or escape has an immense draw. There is also an element to "who cares I am screwed anyway" that we face every single day. In the end you are judging people on some sterile, elevated point of view and it's not real life.

hestipod 9y ago

This is probably the last post I will make lest I be accused of spamming...and I am probably wasting my breath...but I want to put a human face on this. I am middle aged. I was strong and healthy and worked multiple jobs serving the community. I paid taxes and believed that if I needed help it would be there. I was ruined by unneeded and poorly done surgery I was scared into having and since then everything had rotted and faded as systems failed me and people turned on me. I live in severe pain daily with no healthcare beyond an income based primary care clinic for once or twice a year nonsense. I live trapped in the middle of nowhere with no public transport with the last people who will offer a bed and they did so to lord it over others and resent me daily. My meager partial pension covers my food and medication and the big expenses like a CT scan or surgery I have put off for years are ignored. I eat Walmart branded canned goods and cheap fresh stuff. I don't even have a computer anymore as mine and the backup from when I had a life gave up. Once someone donated an old one to me but it had issues and cost too much to fix. I use an external HD on a borrowed laptop I have irregular access to just to get online and have some exposure to the outside world. BTW the internet here is 1mpbs and irregular so add that to the mess. Imagine thinking daily of ending your life or deciding to run away to a cheaper place knowing it will be a dead end too sooner than later but you have no other hopes. Now...if you read all that. Imagine living that way. With nothing but scraps. Imagine seeing no hope. Imagine years go by losing more and more. Now imagine how buying some junk food or a beer or a lottery ticket or some other "waste of money" brings you just a tiny little escape or joy or moment to not suffer and hate everything. Imagine when you DO that people jump all over you judging you and making you feel worse. I don't know if you even can truly imagine living like that...but I hope you do and reconsider. We are human beings and not abstract objects. We want lives as much as you do. Please consider this next time you encounter this topic or someone you are put off by...despite what you probably think it could be you next.

Diederich 9y ago
Thank you for posting all of these. I am well off by most standards, and though I've made quite a few good decisions, there is no doubt that luck played, by far, the biggest part. The one positive thing I have to say to you is this: I hear you, and quite a few others hear you too, though we may well be a minority. We know that the foolish, smug attitudes displayed by many are largely attributes of genetic and environmental history. The only advise I can give you is straightforward: life will always be surprising, often in bad, but sometimes in good ways. It's virtually impossible to know what's coming up. So hang in there, if only to play the entire game that is, though unknown, before you.