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Everyone I have ever known to be poor was because they are lazy and don't want to do anything to advance them self's.
Odd, many of the poor people I have known have been disabled. Oh sure I know a few lazy people too, but they really are a minority. I've also known some poor folks who were....how to put it....not as gifted intellectually as others, but very hard workers.
I suppose it depends on your definition of poor. Lets go talk to some workers in fast food making minimum wage. Are they poor? And lazy?
No, there's not "starving in the street" type poverty like India or Africa generally speaking but I think many people, including a lot of Americans don't realize just how little a lot of people in this country have.
A third of Americans make less than $15,000 a year. You might argue "that's still millions compared to people in the Third World". Well not really and here's why.
In this country healthcare is largely paid out of pocket and a car is a necessity to 80-90 percent of people and maintaining one is not cheap. A typical one bedroom apartment will cost you $8,000 a year on its own and that's in a relatively affordable city. $15,000 isn't even enough to support a bachelor honestly and some people raise kids on little more than this amount! You're essentially forced to borrow and go into debt when you're making that little, so many actually have negative income.
If you're like me and avoid debt at all costs you're sharing an apartment with someone you didn't even know beforehand and living off $8 a day after bills are paid. If I don't budget that $8 a day well, or I have some kind of expense come up I borrow money, sell something or I starve. I haven't starved yet but there's been periods as long as a week where I have to think about what I'm going to sell to buy meals for a few days. Or risk straining my relationship with a family member by more or less begging them for a small loan. My parents' insurance runs out by the time I'm 26 and if I ever get a serious health problem I'll be screwed beyond reason. My only wealth is my decent health and my youth. I'm hoping my community college will accept my FAFSA but honestly it's more of a self esteem issue than anything else. I doubt that having a degree, if I can afford to finish one will improve my prospects much. I think this country is increasingly being divided into those who get lucky by having rich supportive parents or their ventures and ideas making them rich, and everyone else who lives off welfare or works jokes of jobs that pay less than peanuts.
What's with all the young people with their hands out? I have news for you, the world runs by one law, and that law is survival of the fittest. If you cannot survive, then you do not deserve to survive, it is that simple.
No, there's not "starving in the street" type poverty like India or Africa generally speaking but I think many people, including a lot of Americans don't realize just how little a lot of people in this country have.
A third of Americans make less than $15,000 a year. You might argue "that's still millions compared to people in the Third World". Well not really and here's why.
In this country healthcare is largely paid out of pocket and a car is a necessity to 80-90 percent of people and maintaining one is not cheap. A typical one bedroom apartment will cost you $8,000 a year on its own and that's in a relatively affordable city. $15,000 isn't even enough to support a bachelor honestly and some people raise kids on little more than this amount! You're essentially forced to borrow and go into debt when you're making that little, so many actually have negative income.
If you're like me and avoid debt at all costs you're sharing an apartment with someone you didn't even know beforehand and living off $8 a day after bills are paid. If I don't budget that $8 a day well, or I have some kind of expense come up I borrow money, sell something or I starve. I haven't starved yet but there's been periods as long as a week where I have to think about what I'm going to sell to buy meals for a few days. Or risk straining my relationship with a family member by more or less begging them for a small loan. My parents' insurance runs out by the time I'm 26 and if I ever get a serious health problem I'll be screwed beyond reason. My only wealth is my decent health and my youth. I'm hoping my community college will accept my FAFSA but honestly it's more of a self esteem issue than anything else. I doubt that having a degree, if I can afford to finish one will improve my prospects much. I think this country is increasingly being divided into those who get lucky by having rich supportive parents or their ventures and ideas making them rich, and everyone else who lives off welfare or works jokes of jobs that pay less than peanuts.
You are correct, a lot of people have no idea what "truly poor" in this country really means. I've proven that time and again on CD.
I will always rail against those who say that the 1%ers should be "paying us more" or "giving us more", and I will rail against those who want to set higher minimum wages because it does NOT help the poor, it actually makes things WORSE for them. I know, I've been there.
The notion that the poor just "need to be willing to work" as if they aren't willing to work, pisses me off. YES, there are indeed lazy people in this country, and their financial status is their own doing. HOWEVER, there are many people who ARE willing to work, and do work, and try to work more, who are still ridiculously poor. To state that ALL of them have "made bad choices" and "are lazy", and "are stupid", is completely inaccurate.
Until we learn that there truly are very poor people out there who DO all of the right things but have incredibly bad luck, (something RINOs never want to acknowledge actually happens), and that badgering businesses for more, and more, and more, not taking in to account that some 90% of the businesses in this country are FRICKEN SMALL BUSINESSES who can't afford all of the liberals utopian dreams, we will continue to have the issue of those who do work their asses off to get ahead, and continue to fall.
BOTH SIDES are complicit, neither side is "free from blame", and pointing fingers at the poor who do everything that they can to get ahead, or demanding that the Mom and Pop shops that make up so many of those jobs give more than what they can afford, does not help anyone.
You live in Portland where there are expensive restaurants.
Become a waiter in an exclusive high-end restaurant. Dress and act the part.
Give your customers premier service, and you can easily come home with $200-300 in tips a night.
Nights shifts in restaurants are usually from 5 to 10pm. You also get a free meal usually as a benefit.
During the day go to school or train for some other career.
This is how many of us afforded schooling and saved some big bucks while young.
What's with all the young people with their hands out? I have news for you, the world runs by one law, and that law is survival of the fittest. If you cannot survive, then you do not deserve to survive, it is that simple.
That is not how it is it is how you want it to be we are a society a community and have decided a long time ago that we should look for out each other and help each other. This selfish me for me society does not exist here.
You live in Portland where there are expensive restaurants.
Become a waiter in an exclusive high-end restaurant. Dress and act the part.
Give your customers premier service, and you can easily come home with $200-300 in tips a night.
Nights shifts in restaurants are usually from 5 to 10pm. You also get a free meal usually as a benefit.
During the day go to school or train for some other career.
This is how many of us afforded schooling and saved some big bucks while young.
You hit the nail on the head. Two of the people saying the most of their situation about being poor live in one of the most expensive cities in the PNW. If they wish to continue to do so, they will have to make major sacrifices but from their posts both here and other forums they don't seem to be willing to do so. Always an excuse. They seem to want a hand out more than advice.
I moved from Portland because after 36 years of living there I could no longer afford the price tag. There was a time before that when I too was jobless and almost homeless due to a job layoff and difficulty finding permanent work. I did many of the things suggested here to pull myself out of it; school, part time work etc.
Guess what? It worked. I was in my 50's which made it even more difficult for me than these younger people complaining about how there are no opportunities for them because employers prefer to hire younger people.
The reason I could no longer afford Portland and had to move was because I became disabled and could no longer work so a decade later I made the choice to live in a city where I could be more self sufficient financially.
The thing is, you have to make choices. There are opportunities but you have to go out and work for them. If you want to live in a high price tag city you have to work and work hard. Otherwise go where life is easier. In other words, put up or shut up.
The Osama economy = more part time work + hyperinflated COL + mandatory Osamacare + more junk jobs + more Fedgov "programs" to help the newly poor!!!!
Housing prices in many areas has zoomed past pre-bubble levels and the stock market has basically been going up and up for over 5 years. Does anyone think this meteoric rise in these two areas is justified by the GREAT economy.
I don't believe in an engineered wealth-redistribution plan or the evil 1% nonsense. But wow, the naked jacking of wealth into the hands of the ultra-ultra rich should, in theory, tick-off the Lefties a little. I guess THEIR guy is doing it.......so it is A-OK!!!!!!!!!!!
No, there's not "starving in the street" type poverty like India or Africa generally speaking but I think many people, including a lot of Americans don't realize just how little a lot of people in this country have.
A third of Americans make less than $15,000 a year. You might argue "that's still millions compared to people in the Third World". Well not really and here's why.
In this country healthcare is largely paid out of pocket and a car is a necessity to 80-90 percent of people and maintaining one is not cheap. A typical one bedroom apartment will cost you $8,000 a year on its own and that's in a relatively affordable city. $15,000 isn't even enough to support a bachelor honestly and some people raise kids on little more than this amount! You're essentially forced to borrow and go into debt when you're making that little, so many actually have negative income.
If you're like me and avoid debt at all costs you're sharing an apartment with someone you didn't even know beforehand and living off $8 a day after bills are paid. If I don't budget that $8 a day well, or I have some kind of expense come up I borrow money, sell something or I starve. I haven't starved yet but there's been periods as long as a week where I have to think about what I'm going to sell to buy meals for a few days. Or risk straining my relationship with a family member by more or less begging them for a small loan. My parents' insurance runs out by the time I'm 26 and if I ever get a serious health problem I'll be screwed beyond reason. My only wealth is my decent health and my youth. I'm hoping my community college will accept my FAFSA but honestly it's more of a self esteem issue than anything else. I doubt that having a degree, if I can afford to finish one will improve my prospects much. I think this country is increasingly being divided into those who get lucky by having rich supportive parents or their ventures and ideas making them rich, and everyone else who lives off welfare or works jokes of jobs that pay less than peanuts.
I am not going to take time to take apart your stats, but I will say, of those 1/3 that make less than $15,000 most do not work full time, are not the only bread winners in the family or are just entering the work force. and no, the average apt will not cost $8,000 a year unless you live in a city or state where the average person makes a lot more than $15,000 a year. Your stats, like most, mean absolutely nothing.
No one is saying there is not a lot of poverty in our country, all one has to do is drive into the Delta region of my state, check out the reservations and surrouding areas in NM, or drive though the inner cities of any state, you will see more poverty than you can imagine, but if you want to really talk poor, please grow up and visit other countries.
Now, as for your situation, I can tell you many stories that are different from yours. My own kids and grandkids have made it (yes the grandkids are your age or younger) and haven't had rich parents.
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