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It's expensive to be poor in the US. And, unless you've been poor, it can be hard to empathize with because poor problems are largely solved by having more mon

It's expensive to be poor in the US. And, unless you've been poor, it can be hard to empathize with because poor problems are largely solved by having more money. Example: people who receive their paycheck on, effectively, a visa gift card need to pay relatively high fees in order to access that money. A solution would be to suggest a bank account, but those are also expensive when you're poor as banks often make a healthy chunk of profit from fees that hit poor people the most. Practically every solution to this problem is some variation on, "just [have more money]." Which is why these people still face exploitation in the wealthiest country in the world.

milkytron 7y ago
Pardon my ignorance, but is getting paid in visa gift cards a common occurrence for the poor in the US?
- eli_gottlieb 7y ago
  Not usually Visa gift cards, but getting paid via debit card has become somewhat common for low-wage workers. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/business/as-pay-cards-replace-paychecks-bank-fees-hurt-workers.html https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/business/as-pay-cards-rep...
- mywittyname 7y ago
  Not literally a Visa gift card. The reason I say, "effectively, a visa gift card" is because they are functionally the same and people here understand how annoying they are to use. And it's very common for people without bank accounts to get their paychecks on a Visa Payroll Card (or similar). It's a good way for companies to offload the cost of accounting onto the employee.
craftinator 7y ago
> It's expensive to be poor in the US. And, unless you've been poor, it can be hard to empathize with because poor problems are largely solved by having more money. This is a great summary of the major issue with being poor. I know people who live in Italy and Denmark who take home about the same percentage below the poverty line there that I did when I was quite poor. They always had food on the table, always had medical care, and didn't miss rent payments. We just cut poor people loose here.

milkytron 7y ago

Pardon my ignorance, but is getting paid in visa gift cards a common occurrence for the poor in the US?

eli_gottlieb 7y ago
Not usually Visa gift cards, but getting paid via debit card has become somewhat common for low-wage workers. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/business/as-pay-cards-replace-paychecks-bank-fees-hurt-workers.html https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/business/as-pay-cards-rep...
mywittyname 7y ago
Not literally a Visa gift card. The reason I say, "effectively, a visa gift card" is because they are functionally the same and people here understand how annoying they are to use. And it's very common for people without bank accounts to get their paychecks on a Visa Payroll Card (or similar). It's a good way for companies to offload the cost of accounting onto the employee.

craftinator 7y ago

> It's expensive to be poor in the US. And, unless you've been poor, it can be hard to empathize with because poor problems are largely solved by having more money. This is a great summary of the major issue with being poor. I know people who live in Italy and Denmark who take home about the same percentage below the poverty line there that I did when I was quite poor. They always had food on the table, always had medical care, and didn't miss rent payments. We just cut poor people loose here.