What is your definition of poor? (apartments, coops, neighborhoods)

[skilldeadly]

The word poor gets thrown around a lot. Anyone from the bum on the street to people that live okay but in bad neighborhoods. What do you think of as poor?

[StaggerLee22]

When you don't have enough money to do what you need to do.

/endthread.

[barkomatic]

To me being poor means you don't have enough money to meet your basic needs and/or those of your dependents. There are plenty of people who appear poor because of mismanaged finances but that is not the same thing.

[11KAP]

dirty, raggedy, hungry and broke.

[NooYowkur81]

If you rely heavily on government assistance you are poor. If you are out on the street destitute, you are beyond poor.

If your living pay check to pay check and have some gov assistance or none you are working class.

If you've got some money saved up, no gov assistance, and can withstand a hit (losing job, getting sick, etc) you are middle class.

If you've got assets, but still need to work, you are upper middle class.

Anything above that you start going into wealthy and insanely wealthy...

I would define my wife and I as middle class, we are trying to reach upper middle class.

[SobroGuy]

As far as I am concerned, you are poor when you cannot afford to provide for the basics for yourself and/or family, like housing, food, etc, and must rely on government or private assistance to do so.

You are working class when you can afford the basics on your own, and provide for your basic needs.

You are middle class when you can accumulate assets, generate wealth, and live well beyond the basics.

You are wealthy when you can afford whatever it is you like (within reason), you already have substantial assets, and rely less on your income from working and more on income generated from alternative sources (business, investments, etc).

Anything above that is the very rich who do as they please.

[bill83]

I agree with many of you here about the affordability of basic needs.

Do you consider Mitchell-Lama coops as government assistance? What about 80/20 apartments? With or without them can make a hell of difference. Rents are too damn high in NYC, you can jump a class if you are lucky to score an affordable place to live.

[NooYowkur81]

Originally Posted by bill83

I agree with many of you here about the affordability of basic needs.

Do you consider Mitchell-Lama coops as government assistance? What about 80/20 apartments? With or without them can make a hell of difference. Rents are too damn high in NYC, you can jump a class if you are lucky to score an affordable place to live.

They are a form of gov assistance yeah. Most people who live in mitchell lama's are working class to middle class.

[bill83]

But without it, they will be poor. Market rents will take a BIG bite from their pay checks.

[NooYowkur81]

Originally Posted by bill83

But without it, they will be poor. Market rents will take a BIG bite from their pay checks.

Yes you are right about that and that is the ideal intention of these programs.