5 ms·

people living in poverty don’t have “savings”

by evan_ 6y ago

macspoofing 6y ago
Why not? Even under communism when nobody really had money, my grandmother would diligently squirrely as much as she could. My dad did as well, in order to save up for his eventual emigration. There are ways to live below your means under even extreme situations.
- api 6y ago
  Very very few Americans do this. They should, but they don't. Everything in the culture encourages people to spend.
  - macspoofing 6y ago
    It's a perplexing attitude. OP just threw it out there as if it's an obvious fact that "people living in poverty don’t have “savings”". That is such a blatantly false statement. Poor people in developing countries have savings. I can guarantee you that even in places like North Korea, people are squirreling away the little they have, just as my grandmother did. Poor people aren't idiots. They think about the future. They plan for the future. If they need to save, they will save.
  - war1025 6y ago
    Further, if you tell them it's possible they will attack you for suggesting such a thing could even be possible.
    - nickpp 6y ago
      Especially if you point out to them that they are carelessly wasting the one resource they have that is more valuable than money: time.
  - sudosysgen 6y ago
    While that's true, if you attempted to generally reduce propensity to spend in the US economy you would see very, very bad economic effects. It's the paradox of thrift. To note, it has been economic policy to not have Americans save up.
- newsclues 6y ago
  Because food and shelter cost nearly 100% of people’s incomes. If the cost of living is equal or greater than your income, saving is impossible.
  - macspoofing 6y ago
    You're making a lot of assumptions in that statement and spinning a hypothetical story in your head that does not match reality. There are ways to live below your means in America. You may need social assistance if you're in hard times (and that's OK, that's what it's there for), but there is. If you say otherwise, you're just making things up. I said this in another post, but I can guarantee you that even in places like North Korea, people are squirreling away the little they have, just as my grandmother did. It's possible to save even under poverty and/or extreme situations. And America isn't North Korea.
    - newsclues 6y ago
      I think many people with jobs let alone those on social assistance, are below the poverty line, because their incomes do not afford the basic essentials. I’m in Canada, where I think the social safety net is slightly better than America, and I personally live this existence, it’s not a hypothetical for me that I spend over 50% of my income on a studio apartment.
  - nickpp 6y ago
    Both those variables (cost of living and income) are far from fixed. Cost of living can be reduced by removing unnecessary expenses or selecting cheaper options while income can be increased by working more or improving oneself. But you need to want to have those savings. Most of the people I know living day to day spend beyond their means (like buying the BMW instead of the reliable Honda) or waste their time watching tv, drinking with friends or getting high.
    - rtkwe 6y ago
      There's a lot of traps when you're living pay check to pay check and suggesting people cut more ignores that there are solid floors on how cheaply you can live and minimum wage is below or just barely above that in a lot of places. Traps include not being able to buy bulk cheap items because they cost more than you can afford or not being able to buy longer lasting items because they cost more than you can save. Consider just transportation for a minute. The options are fairly simple; walk, bike, public transit or a car. [0] The first two take a while and are very weather dependent so if you live in some parts of the country they're not really options year round and even where they are they take time out of other activities like childcare and cooking (and cooking is one place you can save money but doing so often takes time the one or two shitty low wage jobs don't give you). Public transit is a mess in the US outside of a few cities. For cars cheap means older and by extension more maintenance costs from regular break downs, buying a slightly better more reliable but more expensive car is difficult because you always need a car and the one you have keeps breaking down or other things you similarly had to buy a cheaper but less resilient version of keeps breaking. [0] For where I live those would take 3.25 hrs, 50 minutes, ~1.5 hr, and 20 minutes respectively.
machiaweliczny 6y ago
Agree. What they gain in salary will offset that for sure. It will affect just people who currently earn those $15 as they will need to renegotiate due to small increases in prices and also they relative productivity.
Jeema101 6y ago
The fact that you had to point this out demonstrates that there are a decent number of people who are either out of touch with what life is like for people living paycheck-to-paycheck, or else they're trying very hard to rationalize things.

people living in poverty don’t have “savings”

by evan_ 6y ago

people living in poverty don’t have “savings”

Why not? Even under communism when nobody really had money, my grandmother would diligently squirrely as much as she could. My dad did as well, in order to save up for his eventual emigration. There are ways to live below your means under even extreme situations.

api 6y ago
Very very few Americans do this. They should, but they don't. Everything in the culture encourages people to spend.
- macspoofing 6y ago
  It's a perplexing attitude. OP just threw it out there as if it's an obvious fact that "people living in poverty don’t have “savings”". That is such a blatantly false statement. Poor people in developing countries have savings. I can guarantee you that even in places like North Korea, people are squirreling away the little they have, just as my grandmother did. Poor people aren't idiots. They think about the future. They plan for the future. If they need to save, they will save.
- war1025 6y ago
  Further, if you tell them it's possible they will attack you for suggesting such a thing could even be possible.
  - nickpp 6y ago
    Especially if you point out to them that they are carelessly wasting the one resource they have that is more valuable than money: time.
- sudosysgen 6y ago
  While that's true, if you attempted to generally reduce propensity to spend in the US economy you would see very, very bad economic effects. It's the paradox of thrift. To note, it has been economic policy to not have Americans save up.
newsclues 6y ago
Because food and shelter cost nearly 100% of people’s incomes. If the cost of living is equal or greater than your income, saving is impossible.
- macspoofing 6y ago
  You're making a lot of assumptions in that statement and spinning a hypothetical story in your head that does not match reality. There are ways to live below your means in America. You may need social assistance if you're in hard times (and that's OK, that's what it's there for), but there is. If you say otherwise, you're just making things up. I said this in another post, but I can guarantee you that even in places like North Korea, people are squirreling away the little they have, just as my grandmother did. It's possible to save even under poverty and/or extreme situations. And America isn't North Korea.
  - newsclues 6y ago
    I think many people with jobs let alone those on social assistance, are below the poverty line, because their incomes do not afford the basic essentials. I’m in Canada, where I think the social safety net is slightly better than America, and I personally live this existence, it’s not a hypothetical for me that I spend over 50% of my income on a studio apartment.
- nickpp 6y ago
  Both those variables (cost of living and income) are far from fixed. Cost of living can be reduced by removing unnecessary expenses or selecting cheaper options while income can be increased by working more or improving oneself. But you need to want to have those savings. Most of the people I know living day to day spend beyond their means (like buying the BMW instead of the reliable Honda) or waste their time watching tv, drinking with friends or getting high.
  - rtkwe 6y ago
    There's a lot of traps when you're living pay check to pay check and suggesting people cut more ignores that there are solid floors on how cheaply you can live and minimum wage is below or just barely above that in a lot of places. Traps include not being able to buy bulk cheap items because they cost more than you can afford or not being able to buy longer lasting items because they cost more than you can save. Consider just transportation for a minute. The options are fairly simple; walk, bike, public transit or a car. [0] The first two take a while and are very weather dependent so if you live in some parts of the country they're not really options year round and even where they are they take time out of other activities like childcare and cooking (and cooking is one place you can save money but doing so often takes time the one or two shitty low wage jobs don't give you). Public transit is a mess in the US outside of a few cities. For cars cheap means older and by extension more maintenance costs from regular break downs, buying a slightly better more reliable but more expensive car is difficult because you always need a car and the one you have keeps breaking down or other things you similarly had to buy a cheaper but less resilient version of keeps breaking. [0] For where I live those would take 3.25 hrs, 50 minutes, ~1.5 hr, and 20 minutes respectively.

machiaweliczny 6y ago

Agree. What they gain in salary will offset that for sure. It will affect just people who currently earn those $15 as they will need to renegotiate due to small increases in prices and also they relative productivity.

Jeema101 6y ago

The fact that you had to point this out demonstrates that there are a decent number of people who are either out of touch with what life is like for people living paycheck-to-paycheck, or else they're trying very hard to rationalize things.