4 ms·

I read the whole thing trying to find something I could relate to, as I grew up in a place that was a proper third world country as recently as in the 90s. Thi

by Tade0 5y ago

I read the whole thing trying to find something I could relate to, as I grew up in a place that was a proper third world country as recently as in the 90s. This appears to be American poor - which I think is in its own category, because comparing to American rich it's just so much worse off. It's not that she's necessarily materially poor. It's just that there's no one around who can even begin to understand her predicament. I only ever get close to this when I talk with people who have inherited wealth and give sage advice like "you should be saving 70% of you salary".

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
SkipperCat 5y ago
What I find so fascinating about this article is how it conveys the anxiety of being poor in America. How you're always one "bad luck" event from falling down a socio-economic peg, and recovering from that is so hard. Other places around the world, you're poor, but so's everyone else and you're all in it together.
- ebcode 5y ago
  "What's more, the poor in other countries know that they are living in poor countries. They know that not only they but just about everyone is on the edge of starvation. The poor in the United States, on the other hand, are daily told on all sides that the United States is rich and wonderful. Movies and television constantly show them what happy lives other people are leading. The poor and hopeless are made to feel alone and imprisoned by misery in the midst of a victorious and wealthy and endlessly self-congratulating society." -- Isaac Asimov, "Just Say 'No'?"
  - daddylongstroke 5y ago
    I mean, I've been poor in Eastern Europe, and I've been poor in the US (had no idea!!!). I will take the U.S. poor every day of the week.
oaiey 5y ago
She lives in her social environment and is subjectively (and relatively) poor compared to the rest of the social environment The word poor is not strictly defined, so her "poorness" does not compare to "third-world-poorness". She expresses exactly that. She starts each sentence that she realizes that she is poor compared with them. Relative. I do not have the feeling that she even feels miserable about it.
commandlinefan 5y ago
Ahh.. Very passable, this, very passable. Nothing like a good glass of Chateau de Chassilier wine, ay Gessiah? You're right there Obediah. Who'd a thought thirty years ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Chateau de Chassilier wine? Aye. In them days, we'd a' been glad to have the price of a cup o' tea. A cup ' COLD tea. Without milk or sugar. OR tea! In a filthy, cracked cup. We never used to have a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper. The best WE could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth. But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor. Aye. BECAUSE we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, 'Money doesn't buy you happiness.' 'E was right. I was happier then and I had NOTHIN'. We used to live in this tiiiny old house, with greaaaaat big holes in the roof. House? You were lucky to have a HOUSE! We used to live in one room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of FALLING! You were lucky to have a ROOM! We used to have to live in a corridor! Ohhhh we used to DREAM of livin' in a corridor! Woulda' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woken up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House!? Hmph. Well when I say 'house' it was only a hole in the ground covered by a piece of tarpolin, but it was a house to US. We were evicted from our hole in the ground; we had to go and live in a lake! You were lucky to have a LAKE! There were a hundred and sixty of us living in a small shoebox in the middle of the road. Cardboard box? Aye. You were lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home, our Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt! Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at three o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, go to work at the mill every day for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would beat us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we were LUCKY! Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife. Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing 'Hallelujah.' But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'. Nope, nope..
leoc 5y ago
Well, if most accounts are correct, being "American poor" means you may have to endure, or at least seriously worry about, things like frequently missing meals, going without important and relatively basic healthcare, being forced to live in a dangerous neighbourhood, and even homelessness. It might not make you one of the world's poorest people, but it seems you can quite easily experience a pretty meaningful level of absolute poverty in the US, not just find yourself poorer than others in the country. And this is worsened by the fact that certain "non-essential" things like mobile phone service, Internet access or even a working and fuelled-up automobile may be essential to keeping your access to paid work.
StavrosK 5y ago
What did poverty look like for you? I am also from somewhere very different from this, though I can't say I grew up poor, we did okay.
- Tade0 5y ago
  For me it was mostly not being able to afford school books and clothes, shoes other than Chinese supermarket stuff - so something that wouldn't last two seasons. Also five people living in a 45m2 apartment - thankfully only until I was twelve or so. We reached a low point as a family when I was in college and my father, who left a few years earlier, stopped supporting us. Fortunately by that time I had a part-time job and could at least pay for my own food and cleaning products most of the time. My SO had it worse though - four people in a studio apartment until she was about eleven and her father, the sole consistent breadwinner, left when she was a teenager, from which point on they had to sustain themselves on alimony and occasional jobs their mother would take.
  - burntoutfire 5y ago
    A family member has told me a story of her poor childhood in the thirties in rural Poland. During springs, their family had to steal rotten potatoes from other people's fields and eat weeds to survive. THAT's being poor. What the original article describes sounds more like a anxiety over a risk of falling into poverty, than actual poverty.
    - kelnos 5y ago
      I think a more precise term for it might be "financially insecure". You can make things work, it involves a bit of scraping here and there, but you are one bad-luck event (unexpected medical bill, car break-down, etc.) from being unable to pay your regular bills. Being in such extreme poverty that you need to eat stolen rotten food and weeds is another category entirely.
      - znpy 5y ago
        > I think a more precise term for it might be "financially insecure". it really feels like you're sugarcoating it. if having "to steal rotten potatoes from other people's fields and eat weeds to survive" is not being poor, then i don't know what is.

by Tade0 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

SkipperCat 5y ago

What I find so fascinating about this article is how it conveys the anxiety of being poor in America. How you're always one "bad luck" event from falling down a socio-economic peg, and recovering from that is so hard. Other places around the world, you're poor, but so's everyone else and you're all in it together.

ebcode 5y ago
"What's more, the poor in other countries know that they are living in poor countries. They know that not only they but just about everyone is on the edge of starvation. The poor in the United States, on the other hand, are daily told on all sides that the United States is rich and wonderful. Movies and television constantly show them what happy lives other people are leading. The poor and hopeless are made to feel alone and imprisoned by misery in the midst of a victorious and wealthy and endlessly self-congratulating society." -- Isaac Asimov, "Just Say 'No'?"
- daddylongstroke 5y ago
  I mean, I've been poor in Eastern Europe, and I've been poor in the US (had no idea!!!). I will take the U.S. poor every day of the week.

oaiey 5y ago

She lives in her social environment and is subjectively (and relatively) poor compared to the rest of the social environment The word poor is not strictly defined, so her "poorness" does not compare to "third-world-poorness". She expresses exactly that. She starts each sentence that she realizes that she is poor compared with them. Relative. I do not have the feeling that she even feels miserable about it.

commandlinefan 5y ago

Ahh.. Very passable, this, very passable. Nothing like a good glass of Chateau de Chassilier wine, ay Gessiah? You're right there Obediah. Who'd a thought thirty years ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Chateau de Chassilier wine? Aye. In them days, we'd a' been glad to have the price of a cup o' tea. A cup ' COLD tea. Without milk or sugar. OR tea! In a filthy, cracked cup. We never used to have a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper. The best WE could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth. But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor. Aye. BECAUSE we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, 'Money doesn't buy you happiness.' 'E was right. I was happier then and I had NOTHIN'. We used to live in this tiiiny old house, with greaaaaat big holes in the roof. House? You were lucky to have a HOUSE! We used to live in one room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of FALLING! You were lucky to have a ROOM! We used to have to live in a corridor! Ohhhh we used to DREAM of livin' in a corridor! Woulda' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woken up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House!? Hmph. Well when I say 'house' it was only a hole in the ground covered by a piece of tarpolin, but it was a house to US. We were evicted from our hole in the ground; we had to go and live in a lake! You were lucky to have a LAKE! There were a hundred and sixty of us living in a small shoebox in the middle of the road. Cardboard box? Aye. You were lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home, our Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt! Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at three o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, go to work at the mill every day for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would beat us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we were LUCKY! Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife. Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing 'Hallelujah.' But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'. Nope, nope..

leoc 5y ago

Well, if most accounts are correct, being "American poor" means you may have to endure, or at least seriously worry about, things like frequently missing meals, going without important and relatively basic healthcare, being forced to live in a dangerous neighbourhood, and even homelessness. It might not make you one of the world's poorest people, but it seems you can quite easily experience a pretty meaningful level of absolute poverty in the US, not just find yourself poorer than others in the country. And this is worsened by the fact that certain "non-essential" things like mobile phone service, Internet access or even a working and fuelled-up automobile may be essential to keeping your access to paid work.

StavrosK 5y ago

What did poverty look like for you? I am also from somewhere very different from this, though I can't say I grew up poor, we did okay.

Tade0 5y ago
For me it was mostly not being able to afford school books and clothes, shoes other than Chinese supermarket stuff - so something that wouldn't last two seasons. Also five people living in a 45m2 apartment - thankfully only until I was twelve or so. We reached a low point as a family when I was in college and my father, who left a few years earlier, stopped supporting us. Fortunately by that time I had a part-time job and could at least pay for my own food and cleaning products most of the time. My SO had it worse though - four people in a studio apartment until she was about eleven and her father, the sole consistent breadwinner, left when she was a teenager, from which point on they had to sustain themselves on alimony and occasional jobs their mother would take.
- burntoutfire 5y ago
  A family member has told me a story of her poor childhood in the thirties in rural Poland. During springs, their family had to steal rotten potatoes from other people's fields and eat weeds to survive. THAT's being poor. What the original article describes sounds more like a anxiety over a risk of falling into poverty, than actual poverty.
  - kelnos 5y ago
    I think a more precise term for it might be "financially insecure". You can make things work, it involves a bit of scraping here and there, but you are one bad-luck event (unexpected medical bill, car break-down, etc.) from being unable to pay your regular bills. Being in such extreme poverty that you need to eat stolen rotten food and weeds is another category entirely.
    - znpy 5y ago
      > I think a more precise term for it might be "financially insecure". it really feels like you're sugarcoating it. if having "to steal rotten potatoes from other people's fields and eat weeds to survive" is not being poor, then i don't know what is.