3 ms·
I always thought of “broke” as the transitory status of not having money, while “poor” is a socioeconomic status. I.e. a university student could be too broke
by skohan 6y ago
I always thought of “broke” as the transitory status of not having money, while “poor” is a socioeconomic status.
I.e. a university student could be too broke to buy beer before their next stipend comes in, but that doesn’t make them poor if they can still go home and drive mom & dad’s Tesla on the weekend.
- airhead969 6y agoI think of those words interchangeably. "Poor" is also ambiguous, i.e., "the poor" (economic class status) and "are poor" (having little money, orthogonal to any time period). Examples: "My grandparents grew-up poor, but became middle-class." and "Alms for the poor." And, there are only so many relative modifiers, so one has to use synonyms to make a point. ;)
- skohan 6y agoI still think the meanings are distinct. For instance, you could say: "I can't get a home loan because I'm poor", "I qualify for food stamps because I am poor", but attributing these things to being broke sounds a bit funny. By the same token, you wouldn't say "My grandparents grew up broke, but became middle-class"
- irjustin 6y agoContext changes the meaning as you rightfully point out. Being a broke college student and being a broke adult are wildly different in almost every respect.
- skohan 6y agoI think the definition still holds up fine. The main difference between being a broke adult vs a broke college student is that being broke as an adult is almost always because you're poor.
- fastball 6y agoNot really. You could be pulling down $500k a year but have such a high spend rate that you frequently run out of money before your next paycheck.
- irjustin 6y agoDo you sincerely believe those situations are similar? Exercise - you could pick Broke College Student, Broke Adult, Broke doctor/engineer/lawyer pulling 500k/yr. Which one do you choose, repeatedly? To me, there is almost no scenario where 500k/yr makes you actually broke where you do not have a level of control to rapidly change that situation. Cut your spending, if you have huge debts - get them refinanced, sell something. Aside from being in a debt to a person with a literal gun to your head, you have incredible amounts of flexibility to get out from having your water shut off like person who is truly broke.
- fastball 6y agoA broke doctor is a broke adult, so not exactly sure what distinction you're making. Broke = no money at the moment. Poor = chronically broke.