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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 proclai

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.
24gttghh 9y ago
Smoking makes you feel better in the short term because your body is jonesing for that nicotine, and dopamine gets released when you give your body the nicotine. Then you don't smoke, and you feel shitty until the next nicotine hit. You give a poor justification for an addiction, and the happiness is merely a result of the feedback loop of nicotine > dopamine > no nicotine > dopamine crash > nicotine > dopamine > etc. I'm bastardizing the chemical reactions, but you get the idea. I'm pretty sure medical science would say she is smoking because she's addicted. If she didn't smoke, she would be less likely to die of a fucking heart attack so she could actually work and be actually healthy. I'm not shitting on all poor people making poor decisions, just this lady who has at least one easily solvable problem (smoking while being a heart surgery survivor). Healthy living is not a luxury. Not drinking soda/eating junk food every day and walking are quite free if I recall...
- saint_fiasco 9y ago
  > Not drinking soda/eating junk food every day and walking are quite free if I recall... Even if we ignore for a moment that healthy food can be more expensive than soda and junk food, you have to take into account the necessary time investment. Those things take more time and time is money. One might reasonably argue that someone on disability payments should have more time than money, but habits like smoking and eating junk food were probably acquired when they were not on disability and needed to work as hard and as long as possible to make ends meet. No time for healthy cooking and exercise.
  - fencepost 9y ago
    Don't forget economies of scale (or lack thereof). Many of these folks are in small towns shopping in small stores and paying high prices. If I have the storage space and cash, I can buy a 20 pound bag of rice on sale for $7 or less and use it over time - or I can go to Costco and get a 50 pound bag and maybe even make a little money dividing it up and selling it to my neighbors. If I'm living in a tiny shack with $1.50 to spend, I can instead pay $1+ for a pound bag of rice. A lot of other staples are like that - if you can get a little bit ahead just for a little while it can start a cycle that lets you keep getting a little bit better off as time goes by. That'll last until the emergency, which will put you right back down there gathering roots for $0.20/your. Oh, and the emergency that started this for some folks is birth, and there's no place they can even get to that has bulk items like that to start with.

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.

24gttghh 9y ago

Smoking makes you feel better in the short term because your body is jonesing for that nicotine, and dopamine gets released when you give your body the nicotine. Then you don't smoke, and you feel shitty until the next nicotine hit. You give a poor justification for an addiction, and the happiness is merely a result of the feedback loop of nicotine > dopamine > no nicotine > dopamine crash > nicotine > dopamine > etc. I'm bastardizing the chemical reactions, but you get the idea. I'm pretty sure medical science would say she is smoking because she's addicted. If she didn't smoke, she would be less likely to die of a fucking heart attack so she could actually work and be actually healthy. I'm not shitting on all poor people making poor decisions, just this lady who has at least one easily solvable problem (smoking while being a heart surgery survivor). Healthy living is not a luxury. Not drinking soda/eating junk food every day and walking are quite free if I recall...

saint_fiasco 9y ago
> Not drinking soda/eating junk food every day and walking are quite free if I recall... Even if we ignore for a moment that healthy food can be more expensive than soda and junk food, you have to take into account the necessary time investment. Those things take more time and time is money. One might reasonably argue that someone on disability payments should have more time than money, but habits like smoking and eating junk food were probably acquired when they were not on disability and needed to work as hard and as long as possible to make ends meet. No time for healthy cooking and exercise.
- fencepost 9y ago
  Don't forget economies of scale (or lack thereof). Many of these folks are in small towns shopping in small stores and paying high prices. If I have the storage space and cash, I can buy a 20 pound bag of rice on sale for $7 or less and use it over time - or I can go to Costco and get a 50 pound bag and maybe even make a little money dividing it up and selling it to my neighbors. If I'm living in a tiny shack with $1.50 to spend, I can instead pay $1+ for a pound bag of rice. A lot of other staples are like that - if you can get a little bit ahead just for a little while it can start a cycle that lets you keep getting a little bit better off as time goes by. That'll last until the emergency, which will put you right back down there gathering roots for $0.20/your. Oh, and the emergency that started this for some folks is birth, and there's no place they can even get to that has bulk items like that to start with.