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> Poor people including "perpetually poor" aka most poor people are poor because they are lacking not in financial literacy but rather the necessary skills to m

> Poor people including "perpetually poor" aka most poor people are poor because they are lacking not in financial literacy but rather the necessary skills to make sufficient money to graduate from being poor. Ok, but why is it that lottery winners tend to end up broke pretty quickly [1]? The use of the word "perpetual" wasn't meant to imply the duration of poverty, but more of propensity towards it. I think there is a subset of poorer people who do not know how to manage money terribly well. I agree that a very large percentage of poor people might be perfectly fiscally responsible but socioeconomic reasons prevent them from breaking out. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2016/01/08/how-not-to-squander-the-800-million-powerball-jackpot/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2016/01/08/...

michaelmrose 5y ago
You can't reason about poor people receiving modest sums from lottery winners response to huge windfalls because it's 2 different populations reacting to 2 different scenarios. People budget poorly in response to an instant massive change in wealth because much of America not just the poor are living financial lives with very short horizons. They make decisions based on gut feelings of can I afford that not mathematical projections. Having a balance of millions feels perceptively like unlimited money so many find the limits of their funds. Likewise because say a tax refund is too little money to change their lives and not needed to pay bills poor people "fritter" them away on things that they want. This might be unwise compared to saving for a rainy day but it's not a cause of poverty it's a gut decision. Giving people money in a savings account over time with incentive for delaying withdrawal would be likely to produce a different gut decision. It is deeply ironic that anyone who gets a 6 dollar coffee or 5000 on a vacation probably wastes more than Jane poor did on the TV while declaring the virtues of austerity.

michaelmrose 5y ago

You can't reason about poor people receiving modest sums from lottery winners response to huge windfalls because it's 2 different populations reacting to 2 different scenarios. People budget poorly in response to an instant massive change in wealth because much of America not just the poor are living financial lives with very short horizons. They make decisions based on gut feelings of can I afford that not mathematical projections. Having a balance of millions feels perceptively like unlimited money so many find the limits of their funds. Likewise because say a tax refund is too little money to change their lives and not needed to pay bills poor people "fritter" them away on things that they want. This might be unwise compared to saving for a rainy day but it's not a cause of poverty it's a gut decision. Giving people money in a savings account over time with incentive for delaying withdrawal would be likely to produce a different gut decision. It is deeply ironic that anyone who gets a 6 dollar coffee or 5000 on a vacation probably wastes more than Jane poor did on the TV while declaring the virtues of austerity.