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Being poor is a full time job. I have fasted for weeks without problems and yet on the one occasion in the last 20 years where I was unable to buy food for thre

Being poor is a full time job. I have fasted for weeks without problems and yet on the one occasion in the last 20 years where I was unable to buy food for three days the hunger was severe and overwhelming - the experiences had nothing in common. The cognitive load I have seen on friends struggling with poverty is immense - they are permanently mentally exhausted of all the hard decisions and complicated math needed to make the income last longer. When I was with a friend out buying groceries figuring out the correct amount of baby formula diapers and detergent to buy took half an hour (yeah I offered to helped with the bill, was rejected) and the amount saved compared to just throwing stuff from the shelf in the cart was less that 10% of the total. Edit: Here is an idea for a product - easy to use program that balances the budget as good as possible while taking into account the unique challenges that struggling people are faced with.

michaelfdeberry 13y ago
> Here is an idea for a product - easy to use program that balances the budget as good as possible while taking into account the unique challenges that struggling people are faced with. It's a good idea, but saving money often has an up front cost and I think an app to help the poor would fall into that category. The people that would end up benefiting from such an app would be people that could afford to purchase a device to run the app.
- mkr-hn 13y ago
  I think venomsnake's choice to use "program" instead of "app" was intentional. Most people have access to a computer at the library or even an aging Dell/Compaq that they bought when times were better. This hypothetical program sounds like something that could run inexpensively on AWS and save to Dropbox (like fargo.io).
- superuser2 13y ago
  An app... for people who can afford smartphones but not groceries? It's an interesting problem, though. A smartphone app would be the perfect way to deliver that functionality, but if someone has a smartphone, they probably don't need it.
jerawolfe 13y ago
The poor do tend to acquire cell-phones. They're necessary for survival and appearing that you aren't a lost cause. So this would help many many struggling folk who do have access to the tech. The prices for cellular service are still very high, though, and that's the biggest barrier. The poor who can't make the payments. But its not a bad idea that would help many people trying to move out and away from poverty
jerawolfe 13y ago
http://goo.gl/TjeDJq http://goo.gl/TjeDJq

michaelfdeberry 13y ago

> Here is an idea for a product - easy to use program that balances the budget as good as possible while taking into account the unique challenges that struggling people are faced with. It's a good idea, but saving money often has an up front cost and I think an app to help the poor would fall into that category. The people that would end up benefiting from such an app would be people that could afford to purchase a device to run the app.

mkr-hn 13y ago
I think venomsnake's choice to use "program" instead of "app" was intentional. Most people have access to a computer at the library or even an aging Dell/Compaq that they bought when times were better. This hypothetical program sounds like something that could run inexpensively on AWS and save to Dropbox (like fargo.io).
superuser2 13y ago
An app... for people who can afford smartphones but not groceries? It's an interesting problem, though. A smartphone app would be the perfect way to deliver that functionality, but if someone has a smartphone, they probably don't need it.

jerawolfe 13y ago

The poor do tend to acquire cell-phones. They're necessary for survival and appearing that you aren't a lost cause. So this would help many many struggling folk who do have access to the tech. The prices for cellular service are still very high, though, and that's the biggest barrier. The poor who can't make the payments. But its not a bad idea that would help many people trying to move out and away from poverty

jerawolfe 13y ago

http://goo.gl/TjeDJq http://goo.gl/TjeDJq