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Interesting, I have two conflicting feelings about this. On one hand I agree with you and I am super paranoid about being poor. On the other hand, one thing tha

by sershe 6y ago

Interesting, I have two conflicting feelings about this. On one hand I agree with you and I am super paranoid about being poor. On the other hand, one thing that I definitely learned from growing up poor (I like the original article say "it’s very small (think ~900 sqft)", cause I had stable housing when I was growing up and it was 600sqft for 3-4 people ;)) is how little you need to be happy. In college, when we were somewhat better off but before I could work a real job, I often had a choice of either paying my internet bill, buying (cheap) cafeteria lunches, or buying beer. So, unless I wanted to and could find a part-time job, I liked to joke that my choices were - hungry, sober, and online; sated, sober and offline; and hungry, drunk and offline. I was still happy. After I got my first job, sometimes I would get impostor syndrome and become afraid of losing it; then I'd be like, well I used to be happy when I was choosing between the three options, so anything on top of that is just a nice bonus. As long as I have 150sqft of housing, some food and an internet connection I will be fine. I like to think about that every time I'm afraid of losing my current level of privilege.

burntoutfire 6y ago
> As long as I have 150sqft of housing, some food and an internet connection I will be fine. I like to think about that every time I'm afraid of losing my current level of privilege. I tend to agree, but I also need a couple of things on top of that: - the place needs to be relatively quiet (no asshole neighbors on the other side of the wall, or a busy street) - I need to have an access to relatively peaceful area for walks, preferably green - I need to live in an area that's not depressing because it's decrepit or filled with aggressive idiots - I need friends in a distance that makes seeing them often not a nuisance Take away any of the above and I'm not doing too well long-term. Also, I suspect most people in the world are missing at least one thing from my list.
- sershe 6y ago
  Some of these things are (more or less) free, some are just a matter of perspective. E.g. a place being decrepit is fine, or becomes fine over time, it just blends into the background. The noise is spot on, I guess I meant 150sqft of ok-quality housing :)

by sershe 6y ago

burntoutfire 6y ago

> As long as I have 150sqft of housing, some food and an internet connection I will be fine. I like to think about that every time I'm afraid of losing my current level of privilege. I tend to agree, but I also need a couple of things on top of that: - the place needs to be relatively quiet (no asshole neighbors on the other side of the wall, or a busy street) - I need to have an access to relatively peaceful area for walks, preferably green - I need to live in an area that's not depressing because it's decrepit or filled with aggressive idiots - I need friends in a distance that makes seeing them often not a nuisance Take away any of the above and I'm not doing too well long-term. Also, I suspect most people in the world are missing at least one thing from my list.

sershe 6y ago
Some of these things are (more or less) free, some are just a matter of perspective. E.g. a place being decrepit is fine, or becomes fine over time, it just blends into the background. The noise is spot on, I guess I meant 150sqft of ok-quality housing :)