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Many factors in poor staying poor. The High Cost of Poverty: Why the Poor Pay More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/17/AR200905170

by Joakal 15y ago

Many factors in poor staying poor. The High Cost of Poverty: Why the Poor Pay More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/17/AR2009051702053.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05... Poor people spend 9% of income on lottery tickets; here's why: http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/05/31/poor-people-spend-9-of-income-on-lottery-tickets-heres-why/ http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/05/31/poor-people-spend-9... Missing poverty's new reality: There's a lot less of it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/25/AR2011012504735.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01...

yummyfajitas 15y ago
Your first link is full of fail. You [a hypothetical poor person] don't have a car to get to a supermarket... 70% of the poor own a car, 25% own two cars. When you are poor, you don't have the luxury of throwing a load into the washing machine... 64% of the poor do have that luxury. http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/h150-07.pdf http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/h150-07.pdf It only gets worse from that point on. The poor can't get free supermarket discount cards?
- Joakal 15y ago
  Interesting data! Thanks for your input, For lack of a better opinion, I've been focusing on improving this stuff because of the relative ease.
- mfringel 15y ago
  _70% of the poor own a car, 25% own two cars._ Those particular numbers don't tell the whole story. There are many ways to "not have a car", including "the car has broken down and they don't have the $300 to get it fixed, just like what happened last month because the car is fundamentally unreliable after owning it for 15 years (or getting a 10-year-old used one because they had a windfall one month, five years ago) but they can't amass enough cash to get another one, because they're living hand-to-mouth."
- sethg 15y ago
  I’m not going to look for an answer right now in that 642-page book, but I suspect that a significant fraction of poor people live in suburban or rural areas, where owning a car is an absolute necessity for holding a job, and owning two cars would be damn near a necessity in families where both parents work outside the house.
  - dbaugh 15y ago
    I find that most people just don't understand what being poor and living and rural place is like. Besides the need of a car for a job it is absolutely necessary in order to have any social contact. When you live in a rural place your friends live at least 30 miles away. This is why rural "hicks" get pissed off when the gas price gets high. It takes way there ability to socialize.
  - yummyfajitas 15y ago
    The poverty rates for metro and nonmetro areas are not dramatically different (12.5% vs 15.4%). http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/EIB59/EIB59.pdf http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/EIB59/EIB59.pdf Some quick math suggests about 30% of poor people live in nonmetro areas. http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/Population/ http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/Population/ Since you seem unwilling to browse any sources I cite, I'm not going to bother looking up suburban poverty. If you are interested in understanding poverty in the US, you should skim that 642 page report. It's a fantastic report and it answers many questions one might have about the material conditions of the poor (and many other categories of people).

by Joakal 15y ago

yummyfajitas 15y ago

Your first link is full of fail. You [a hypothetical poor person] don't have a car to get to a supermarket... 70% of the poor own a car, 25% own two cars. When you are poor, you don't have the luxury of throwing a load into the washing machine... 64% of the poor do have that luxury. http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/h150-07.pdf http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/h150-07.pdf It only gets worse from that point on. The poor can't get free supermarket discount cards?

Joakal 15y ago
Interesting data! Thanks for your input, For lack of a better opinion, I've been focusing on improving this stuff because of the relative ease.
mfringel 15y ago
_70% of the poor own a car, 25% own two cars._ Those particular numbers don't tell the whole story. There are many ways to "not have a car", including "the car has broken down and they don't have the $300 to get it fixed, just like what happened last month because the car is fundamentally unreliable after owning it for 15 years (or getting a 10-year-old used one because they had a windfall one month, five years ago) but they can't amass enough cash to get another one, because they're living hand-to-mouth."
sethg 15y ago
I’m not going to look for an answer right now in that 642-page book, but I suspect that a significant fraction of poor people live in suburban or rural areas, where owning a car is an absolute necessity for holding a job, and owning two cars would be damn near a necessity in families where both parents work outside the house.
- dbaugh 15y ago
  I find that most people just don't understand what being poor and living and rural place is like. Besides the need of a car for a job it is absolutely necessary in order to have any social contact. When you live in a rural place your friends live at least 30 miles away. This is why rural "hicks" get pissed off when the gas price gets high. It takes way there ability to socialize.
- yummyfajitas 15y ago
  The poverty rates for metro and nonmetro areas are not dramatically different (12.5% vs 15.4%). http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/EIB59/EIB59.pdf http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/EIB59/EIB59.pdf Some quick math suggests about 30% of poor people live in nonmetro areas. http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/Population/ http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/Population/ Since you seem unwilling to browse any sources I cite, I'm not going to bother looking up suburban poverty. If you are interested in understanding poverty in the US, you should skim that 642 page report. It's a fantastic report and it answers many questions one might have about the material conditions of the poor (and many other categories of people).