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Volunteer & serve on the board of a non-profit that focuses on meeting a community need. Did you know that diapers are not covered in the United States by gover

by mlac 5y ago

Volunteer & serve on the board of a non-profit that focuses on meeting a community need. Did you know that diapers are not covered in the United States by government assistance? So the current setup is that we have a lot of diaper banks across the United States that provide diapers to those in need. Diapers are sold as single items in corner stores in low income areas at extreme markups, and sometimes parents can only afford one a day. If the baby poops or pees right after the change… Well. Yeah. I serve on the board of one [1], and we’ve had events that have given out 100k diapers to those in need in a day. The frustrating thing is that there is no sustainable model here - the diaper banks get donations from companies and and we can buy them using donated money / grants for a discount, but we obviously don’t charge those who need them for the diapers (and I do not believe we can sell them as a bank). I think there are two main pain points for people who do not have a lot of money: 1) There are economies of scale as you “level up” in income - cost per diaper gets much cheaper when you can buy from Sam’s club vs. paying $1 per at the corner store. Even shopping at Sam’s is out the window because it assumes you have a car to get there… 2) the “fixed costs” of life are fairly standard. It takes a salary of $85K for the happiness to have marginal returns, and I think this is because you hit the point where your basic needs are met for an American lifestyle and everything else is gravy. It covers medical (within reason), insurance, transportation, some fun thing, housing, food, etc. and gets you to the level where you can finally get ahead. [1] https://www.wpadiaperbank.org/ https://www.wpadiaperbank.org/ [2] https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/money-buys-happiness-depending-on-income-level-2021-1 https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/money-buys-...

voidfunc 5y ago
Im sad this a real problem (and its a good example of a problem I would never have thought existed). Ill take a look at the links, thank you.
- mlac 5y ago
  Yeah I didn’t realize it existed either and that’s why I’m spending my time on the organization. I think most people just assume that people can use government benefits to buy diapers. Here is another way to look at it: Take your salary (or income from investments) divided by the poverty line to get a multiplying factor. The poverty line for a one person household is $12,880 [1]. For simplicity, let’s say you make $128,880 a year. That’s 10x the poverty line and a 10x multiplier. The simple approach is to just multiply everything by that multiplying factor - in our example, filling up a gas tank would be $500 instead of $50. I know that would make me consider getting half a tank instead of just filling up… For a more complex thing - take an expense category for the month, like food. Multiply every dollar you spend on food for the month by 10 (the factor above). So say you spend $500 a month on food - set aside an additional $4500. $100 on alcohol, set aside $900. You will quickly see how fast money goes. I recently had a child, so I am going to do this with diapers one month and donate the difference to the diaper bank. You could do the same with a cause you care about. The thing that surprised me about the non-profit scene is how cut throat it is. There is a lack of funding, people compete on grants, and everyone is extremely passionate about their cause. So some people view it as a zero sum game and have the attitude of “I don’t care if a few babies have a wet diaper, my non-profit fixing cause X has a bigger impact” and they will use their altruistic end to justify some pretty crappy behavior. I’m of the mindset that we need to work together, and fortunately most others in the space are too. But a dollar is a dollar, and there are people that are very passionate with strong beliefs about how the next dollar given to the non-profit space should be spent to optimize the societal benefit. [1] https://aspe.hhs.gov/2021-poverty-guidelines https://aspe.hhs.gov/2021-poverty-guidelines * one can argue there are a lot of government benefits available to those near the poverty line, but the point of the exercise is to get in the same ballpark. Plus accessing those services isn’t easy - Millions of people spend hundreds to hire an accountant to interface with the IRS once a year so that they can pay the government. Getting things from the government is more difficult...

by mlac 5y ago

voidfunc 5y ago

Im sad this a real problem (and its a good example of a problem I would never have thought existed). Ill take a look at the links, thank you.

mlac 5y ago
Yeah I didn’t realize it existed either and that’s why I’m spending my time on the organization. I think most people just assume that people can use government benefits to buy diapers. Here is another way to look at it: Take your salary (or income from investments) divided by the poverty line to get a multiplying factor. The poverty line for a one person household is $12,880 [1]. For simplicity, let’s say you make $128,880 a year. That’s 10x the poverty line and a 10x multiplier. The simple approach is to just multiply everything by that multiplying factor - in our example, filling up a gas tank would be $500 instead of $50. I know that would make me consider getting half a tank instead of just filling up… For a more complex thing - take an expense category for the month, like food. Multiply every dollar you spend on food for the month by 10 (the factor above). So say you spend $500 a month on food - set aside an additional $4500. $100 on alcohol, set aside $900. You will quickly see how fast money goes. I recently had a child, so I am going to do this with diapers one month and donate the difference to the diaper bank. You could do the same with a cause you care about. The thing that surprised me about the non-profit scene is how cut throat it is. There is a lack of funding, people compete on grants, and everyone is extremely passionate about their cause. So some people view it as a zero sum game and have the attitude of “I don’t care if a few babies have a wet diaper, my non-profit fixing cause X has a bigger impact” and they will use their altruistic end to justify some pretty crappy behavior. I’m of the mindset that we need to work together, and fortunately most others in the space are too. But a dollar is a dollar, and there are people that are very passionate with strong beliefs about how the next dollar given to the non-profit space should be spent to optimize the societal benefit. [1] https://aspe.hhs.gov/2021-poverty-guidelines https://aspe.hhs.gov/2021-poverty-guidelines * one can argue there are a lot of government benefits available to those near the poverty line, but the point of the exercise is to get in the same ballpark. Plus accessing those services isn’t easy - Millions of people spend hundreds to hire an accountant to interface with the IRS once a year so that they can pay the government. Getting things from the government is more difficult...