Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
While I do believe there are MANY people who abuse the system, I can't say I see any "poor" people driving Escalade's or Navigator's. Unless you're talking about one that is 10 years old and has 200K miles and costs roughly the same as a used Honda Civic...than maybe yes.
While I see many lower-class people owning expensive gadgets, usually most are relatively SMALL luxuries as someone else stated. An iPhone is $200, an iPad is $500, an LCD tv can be had for $400, etc. While not exactly chump change, $500 is doable to someone on a budget if they save up. It's not exactly the same category as a $70K luxury SUV.
But why can't they just be OK with a tube TV which can be had for $20 these days if they can't afford to pay for their food without foodstamps. If you're on foodstampts you should't be buying LCD TVs or Ipads.
Generally people cant keep up with everyone else buying a new car, overseas vacations, home remodels, ect. So they buy things that the people a class above them have, even though they probably shouldn't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by katestar
But why can't they just be OK with a tube TV which can be had for $20 these days if they can't afford to pay for their food without foodstamps. If you're on foodstampts you should't be buying LCD TVs or Ipads.
These are illustrations of the sense of entitlement that has taken over our society. People think they should have whatever they want with no effort whatsoever. If other people have something nice, then they have a right to have it, too.
These entitled people will never stop to think about the hard work and self-denial that goes into being able to afford nice things. They will ignore the fact that the people who can afford these things spend years going to school to get a degree or learn a trade, tolerate unpleasant work environments, work very hard to move up the career ladder, discipline themselves to save money, etc., until they afford to buy themselves nice things.
Now, there's no such thing as living within your means. Everything is about luxury fever and instant gratification.
It especially saddens me to watch young people modeling this behavior. Years ago kids understood that they had to work to earn the money to get nice things. They used to want to shovel snow, rake leaves, or do babysitting to make money. Now, they look at you like you're crazy if you suggest that they get a job and save.
These are illustrations of the sense of entitlement that has taken over our society. People think they should have whatever they want with no effort whatsoever. If other people have something nice, then they have a right to have it, too.
These entitled people will never stop to think about the hard work and self-denial that goes into being able to afford nice things. They will ignore the fact that the people who can afford these things spend years going to school to get a degree or learn a trade, tolerate unpleasant work environments, work very hard to move up the career ladder, discipline themselves to save money, etc., until they afford to buy themselves nice things.
Now, there's no such thing as living within your means. Everything is about luxury fever and instant gratification.
It especially saddens me to watch young people modeling this behavior. Years ago kids understood that they had to work to earn the money to get nice things. They used to want to shovel snow, rake leaves, or do babysitting to make money. Now, they look at you like you're crazy if you suggest that they get a job and save.
I agree with you Marie. Now my question is, how do you prove to a young adult that it's worth it to go to school get a job, support yourself etc? You can just sit on your a$$, pop out some kids and everything will be provided for you. You can spend your $8 an hour on Ipads and LCD TVs.
I don't know, if a young adult came to me and was asking what he/she should do, I wouldn't go with the college route. I would tell them to get a job and work for a few years. Find something they are good at and then go to college to pursue a relevant degree. Unless you are going for Lawyer or Doctor, I would wait on school. Most of us don't have Ivy League smarts and it's not guaranteed that smart people will be able to gt a job. Sorry to be off topic.
But why can't they just be OK with a tube TV which can be had for $20 these days if they can't afford to pay for their food without foodstamps. If you're on foodstampts you should't be buying LCD TVs or Ipads.
I agree and disagree. I agree that, in theory, those that cannot purchase essentials in life without government intervention in their life, shouldn't be spending hundreds of dollars on unnecessary electronic items.
I would disagree that just because someone is barely getting by, that they should give up every enjoyment in life because of their financial situation. I'd much rather have someone work for a living, even in a minimum wage job, than to sit around all day and collect about 3/4 of their employed income through government welfare. If someone didn't have any "wants" in their life and all their "needs" could be provide through taxpayer dollars; they would have almost zero ambition to work because they could just collect welfare to cover ALL of their necessities. Because someone WANTS an iPad/iPhone/LCD TV, it gives them some ambition to earn enough money to purchase that item even if they still collect food stamps. At least their spending their OWN money on whatever item they seek to own.
lol... how funny this topic came up when I am currently writing a persuasive paper on how we as a society are living far outside our means than ever before. Just like one of my favorite commercials says "How do I do it? I'm in debt up to my eyeballs!"
My father was in the military and my family was really poor when I was growing up. So now I'm frugal, with no need for all the latest gadgets. DH and I been through some hard times (and we live in a Hi-COL city as well)... so basically we do what we can with a very minimal budget.
When we decided that it was time for a (new-ish) car, we save as much as we could... and look around for a long time. We found in a 2005 Suzuki SUV... it had problems which was why it was soo cheap because people couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. Luckily, my husband is a great car mechanic. So we got that car for a steal (around 4K$) and he was able to fix it. Only problem we had some friends who are just as poor as we, but not at all frugal or financially responsible (they too have to have the latest gadgets, clothes, et. c)... just steaming about how apparently we were just rich this whole time but were hiding it until we could "show" off. The sad thing is... they actually make more money than we do, but retain so much less than us. It got to the point every time we saw them, they expected us to pick up the tab on everything from food (restaurant to grocery shopping), to whatever entertainment (like taking our kids to the zoo)-- if we didn't, they would just complain and complain and complain about how life is hard for them. Meanwhile, they had to get a Subaru WRX, had to have iphones, all that stuff... their house was going into foreclosure! They decided that since they "overpaid" for the house, that it wasn't worth it to pay the mortgage-- but kept on living there anyways. They were bitter. It got to the point we had to chuck them because it was getting unbearable. Now they're on the extreme end, but we've come across others who have some of the same bitterness as well.
Its definitely all mentality. I can't feel sorry for poor people who complain too much because hello, I'm poor too. I'm on the same dang boat but even I get astounded by the bitterness and anger that most of the poor people I've come across have. They were also the ones who harp on about the 1% and how they shouldn't "have everything".
Given that so many middle class and even high income families have ended up with huge amounts of credit card debt due to to buying all sorts of crap they don't need, is it really any surprise that people who are poor would also want lots of consumer items that they don't need?
Perhaps these people are smarter than you think? I got my iPhone 3gs for free and pay $60 a month for service. I don't have internet where I live (ya know, out in the sticks because it's cheaper to live) and it would be more expensive to drive out to our college library to use the internet there (and busses don't run where I live). In addition, I've purchased an $800 Coach purse for $50 at an estate sale, I've purchased many pairs of high quality, designer jeans at goodwill for under $20 a pair, I own a ps3 that I got for $50 at a garage sale (with 2 controllers and a bunch of games) and got a great deal on my 42" Sony Aquos ($200) because it had a dark spot in the corner and was a shelf model.
So yeah, one can get nice 'luxury' items for pennies on the dollar if they shop correctly. I wonder how many of those people you demonize paid full price for anything they have? Well-off people pay full price for things, who's the stupid one now?
Well governamnt has program that thery actaully base asets to quify for so i guess governamnt wants then to have this particualr stuff or they would not allow it to quaify for welfare etc. Its all politics as usual ;really.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
. Unless you're talking about one that is 10 years old and has 200K miles and costs roughly the same as a used Honda Civic...than maybe yes.
