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I feel like the author tells us that being poor means worrying about problems you can’t fix all the time? Or at least, that you believe you can never fix them?
by Aeolun 1y ago
I feel like the author tells us that being poor means worrying about problems you can’t fix all the time? Or at least, that you believe you can never fix them?
If you don’t have the $300 for the own part repair on your truck, there’s no point in worrying about it. If you truck breaks it breaks, it’s never going to recover unless you think of something else. Complaining that you don’t have $300 for even the home repair doesn’t do anything to improve the situation. Better figure out a way to live if the truck breaks.
- chistev 1y agoWe know complaining doesn't fix any problem, but we can't help it. Easier said to tell people to get on with their lives.
- Aeolun 1y agoThat’s as true for the weather as anything else xD I just feel people always say ‘I have no options’, when they eminently have tons of them. They’re just all bad ones.
- wiseowise 1y agoYeah, this right here has never been poor. “Just don’t worry” “Just pull yourself by your bootstraps” “Just stop being poor”
- Aeolun 1y agoNo, I said to stop worrying about stuff you can’t fix. That’s easier said than done, but entirely wealth independent. It’s like worrying about impending death when you are a 90 year old billionaire.
- dangus 1y agoHow do you get to work if your car/truck breaks? 95% of American commuters are using personal vehicles. “Fixing your car” is just one example and not anywhere close to the worst imaginable one. “Just don’t worry about skipping meals” “Just don’t worry about that abscess” “Just don’t worry about getting evicted”
- Aeolun 1y agoYou don’t get to work if your car or truck breaks. Now knowing that, what are your best options if it does? You can spend time finding solutions, or spend time worrying, or writing blog posts saying that people don’t know what it’s like to be poor. I do plenty of spiraling myself, but I try to recognize that it’s not very productive. Worrying or complaining about the fact that you won’t have any food tomorrow is not going to fill your belly.
- dangus 1y agoI don’t think the blog post is written by an author thar is currently poor and is therefore wasting their precious time writing blog posts instead of figuring out their life. I think the point it’s trying to convey is that people too often blame the poor without stepping in their shoes. If you think that conversation isn’t “very productive” I’m not sure what planet you’re living on. Certainly not the same planet where the world’s richest country is trying to cut food assistance, add work requirements to social safety net programs, refuse to make even the most basic healthcare services universal, cut the basic healthcare services that it does provide the poorest, and generally has a cultural zeitgeist actively hostile to people in poverty. You say that the poor person whose car broke down should just magically stop worrying and do something productive like find a solution, but don’t you think that having to do that constantly sounds a bit exhausting? As someone who is not poor you have no need to train your brain to ignore survival alarms like that. If your car breaks down you have ample options, just throw your uber ride on a credit card, take your car to the fancy dealership that will give you a courtesy car, own a second or third car, or own a nice new car that will never strand you in the first place. Your belly never feels hunger for too long, your body never feels excessive cold or heat, you don’t feel the pain of untreated preventable health conditions, you don’t feel your body aching from working multiple physical jobs, you don’t feel the adrenaline rush of being mugged or hearing bullets fly in your neighborhood, the police don’t work with a heavy hand because of where you live and they don’t harass you for how you look, you don’t breathe the pollution and don’t hear the noise that disproportionately impacts lower income neighborhoods, [1] you don’t have the government coming to move you and take your house because it’s cheap and convenient to do so. [2] Those are actual physical survival feelings that you’re just telling the poor to stop worrying about. [1] Interstate highways don’t tend to cut through/demolish established wealthy neighborhoods. [2] Here’s a random example: the LA Dodgers stadium was built on the site of a working class neighborhood where the residents were kicked out in a fiasco that can only be described as an abuse of eminent domain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chavez_Ravine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chavez_Ravine