4 ms·

Let’s say someone buys an iPhone and 4 lattes per week: each latte costs about $4, and a new iPhone is $25 per month on a payment plan. Let’s do the math now. $

Let’s say someone buys an iPhone and 4 lattes per week: each latte costs about $4, and a new iPhone is $25 per month on a payment plan. Let’s do the math now. $16(x)4=$64, and that’s your total latte spend per month. Add on the iPhone and it’s at $79, but let’s round up to $80 $80(x)12 months = $960 Wow those fools spending their $960 which if they saved they would be able to put 20% down on a $400,000 home in only… 80 YEARS OF SAVING Yeah I think the latte and iPhone is more pleasure then saving until death for nothing at all. Do the math next time.

jimnotgym 3y ago
Comment of the day sir I hear all the time about my parents generation going to the pub several nights a week which I as a middle class professional could not afford. My dad was telling me how much his rent (nice house in the country) was after he got married and how hard it was to save for a house. A few more questions got to it being 1/20th of his junior tradesman income! I could live like a king if my rent was 1/20th of my income
- oceansea 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - shrimp_emoji 3y ago
    You're adorable <3
    - dang 3y ago
      "Don't feed egregious comments by replying; flag them instead." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
      - shrimp_emoji 3y ago
        I sincerely meant they're adorable! Why would I flag them, dang? >=T
SketchySeaBeast 3y ago
It'd be $89, but your point is well and truly made.
Dalewyn 3y ago
[flagged]
- CraigJPerry 3y ago
  In the 60s as a young fella you might have lusted after a Zenith Zanette portable radio. Latest technology, yours for only $40 in 1962. These were popular devices, in 1959 there were estimated to be 950 wireless radios (all makes and models, not just Zanettes) for every 1000 inhabitants of the USA. $40 in 1962 is around $400 today. In 1960 as young man on below average wages you could have a house, a car and a wireless radio. In 2023 as a young man on above average wages you can have the wireless radio (today that gadget is an iphone) but forget the house and car. Actually it’s more likely to be an android among young males - couldn’t say why but cost seems an obvious reason!
- SketchySeaBeast 3y ago
  I think your calibration as to destitution has gone askew. These things you're complaining about are cheap compared to everything else in their life, but you ask them to give it up so they can "act the part"? The person you are responding to made it very clear that just because you can afford an iPhone it doesn't mean you can afford a home, but you'd deny them the iPhone? Why? He just proved that removing the little things wont get them the big things, so why can't they enjoy the little things? It's not helping them to deny themselves, it's allowing you to feel correct in your understanding of what poor looks like. You demanding that all the poor wear a hair shirt to show their repentance is your own desire to watch them "act the part" as you believe their part to be, not something that will make their lives better, unless you believe the suffering is the point.
  - Dalewyn 3y ago
    Let me put it this way: If someone supposedly destitute doesn't have the discipline to put their meager surplus income towards their savings, I'm not going to help them. Owning something like an iPhone is a luxury, if you spend on luxuries then you do not need help and I'm not going to help you. It's the same reason most of us wouldn't help a homeless man who spends whatever money he gets on booze.
regpertom 3y ago
Throwing out there that 16$ a week in coffee isn’t that much, make it two a day so you can be in the cool group, 16 goes to 40. Then chuck in a toastie because you deserve it twice a week now you’re at 60. A take away or two call it 100. I don’t think it’s far out to say it’s easy to squander 100 a week even when poor. 5k a year. Not enough to save for a house, but 1. the start of being responsible even if it’s squirrelling away pennies. 2. Having some savings means you don’t get wiped out by every unexpected bill. 3. Working hard to put away 50$ -100$ a week is a tough and long slog that might give you motivation to try for a better life (or give up but others have covered that). But going by what I would call your low ball number, every 20$ a week you save works out a grand a year. 80 years for 20$, 40 40, 20 80, 10 160, 5 320.??? So, get on the treadmill or don’t but it’s weird how many people buck against the idea that when you’re very poor then every 10’s of dollars a week does add up. Not that 10 dollars matters, but can you make that 20 a week? Can you squeeze more for 40? 80? Some people have made those sacrifices, they don’t rate the pleasure of latte and iPhone higher than financial security. So please if you could manage, don’t throw out phrases like do that maths sarcastically.

jimnotgym 3y ago

Comment of the day sir I hear all the time about my parents generation going to the pub several nights a week which I as a middle class professional could not afford. My dad was telling me how much his rent (nice house in the country) was after he got married and how hard it was to save for a house. A few more questions got to it being 1/20th of his junior tradesman income! I could live like a king if my rent was 1/20th of my income

oceansea 3y ago
[flagged]
- shrimp_emoji 3y ago
  You're adorable <3
  - dang 3y ago
    "Don't feed egregious comments by replying; flag them instead." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - shrimp_emoji 3y ago
      I sincerely meant they're adorable! Why would I flag them, dang? >=T

SketchySeaBeast 3y ago

It'd be $89, but your point is well and truly made.

Dalewyn 3y ago

[flagged]

CraigJPerry 3y ago
In the 60s as a young fella you might have lusted after a Zenith Zanette portable radio. Latest technology, yours for only $40 in 1962. These were popular devices, in 1959 there were estimated to be 950 wireless radios (all makes and models, not just Zanettes) for every 1000 inhabitants of the USA. $40 in 1962 is around $400 today. In 1960 as young man on below average wages you could have a house, a car and a wireless radio. In 2023 as a young man on above average wages you can have the wireless radio (today that gadget is an iphone) but forget the house and car. Actually it’s more likely to be an android among young males - couldn’t say why but cost seems an obvious reason!
SketchySeaBeast 3y ago
I think your calibration as to destitution has gone askew. These things you're complaining about are cheap compared to everything else in their life, but you ask them to give it up so they can "act the part"? The person you are responding to made it very clear that just because you can afford an iPhone it doesn't mean you can afford a home, but you'd deny them the iPhone? Why? He just proved that removing the little things wont get them the big things, so why can't they enjoy the little things? It's not helping them to deny themselves, it's allowing you to feel correct in your understanding of what poor looks like. You demanding that all the poor wear a hair shirt to show their repentance is your own desire to watch them "act the part" as you believe their part to be, not something that will make their lives better, unless you believe the suffering is the point.
- Dalewyn 3y ago
  Let me put it this way: If someone supposedly destitute doesn't have the discipline to put their meager surplus income towards their savings, I'm not going to help them. Owning something like an iPhone is a luxury, if you spend on luxuries then you do not need help and I'm not going to help you. It's the same reason most of us wouldn't help a homeless man who spends whatever money he gets on booze.

regpertom 3y ago

Throwing out there that 16$ a week in coffee isn’t that much, make it two a day so you can be in the cool group, 16 goes to 40. Then chuck in a toastie because you deserve it twice a week now you’re at 60. A take away or two call it 100. I don’t think it’s far out to say it’s easy to squander 100 a week even when poor. 5k a year. Not enough to save for a house, but 1. the start of being responsible even if it’s squirrelling away pennies. 2. Having some savings means you don’t get wiped out by every unexpected bill. 3. Working hard to put away 50$ -100$ a week is a tough and long slog that might give you motivation to try for a better life (or give up but others have covered that). But going by what I would call your low ball number, every 20$ a week you save works out a grand a year. 80 years for 20$, 40 40, 20 80, 10 160, 5 320.??? So, get on the treadmill or don’t but it’s weird how many people buck against the idea that when you’re very poor then every 10’s of dollars a week does add up. Not that 10 dollars matters, but can you make that 20 a week? Can you squeeze more for 40? 80? Some people have made those sacrifices, they don’t rate the pleasure of latte and iPhone higher than financial security. So please if you could manage, don’t throw out phrases like do that maths sarcastically.