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I know I should not judge a book by its cover, and maybe I am just no looking outside the box. Maybe these guys are all former city workers with fat pensions but those who are not how???
I am talking about the people in their late 50s-60s who basically hang out all day, play cards, walk up and down 125th street or St nicholas (not a race thing I am the same color as some, and hell at times when work is stressing I wish I am them) playing dominos or "chillng." It seems like I stress over a 401K, retirement, social security etc etc, but they on the other hand seem to be happy, living life and just being a part of NYC with no stress.
Does goverment aid give away that much?
What about rent, NYC is exspensive and how are the ones who dont work eating? I dont know just curious is all.
most likely many of them live in rooming houses and
maybe have grown children that do all the worrying
for them, or they just know the secrets to hustling
and getting paper out here. you should go and ask
them sometimes.
Many of these folks moved into Harlem years and years ago when rents were cheap and live in rent-stablilized apartments or the few remaining rooming houses and SROs at far less than current market rents. Others have low rents because they live in the projects or some other form of subsidized housing. They're not all unemployed either--a lot of old guys do shift work of some type and their night time is our normal working hours.
Don't forget too that in Harlem (and most poor areas of the city for that matter) there is an awful lot of poor health, so many of the folks you see in the daytime can't work for one reason or another and are on disability of some type.
For sure some are just bums, winos, or otherwise marginal. But I suspect that there's more to it than that for many of these old-timers you see hanging in the streets in the daytime.
Um, my old relatives just "hang out" all the time too since they are retired...Isn't that the point of retirement?
True, but since OP stated late 50s and 60s, a lot of people that age are still working and not retired. So there'd be other reasons why they're hanging out.
Well many of these people fall into a few categories:
1. They are "disabled" which doesn't mean you cannot actually work. It just means..well I technically don't know. But you can be perfectly capable of spending all day hanging out, seeing friends, and doing just about everything you would normally do..except work of course.
2. They qualify for #1 above, and live with family.
3. The government has determined that these people cannot care for themselves through employment, and have accepted them as permanent wards of the state, and all the housing, food, and other subsidies to go with that. FOR LIFE..no worries, no stress, no bills.
4. Some are on pensions, and have lived in the city for decades, with low rents.
That's it. If you don't plan on worrying about retirement, savings, 401ks, or all those other things responsible people care about, you can expect to live the fabulous life of extreme poverty in generally higher crime areas, poor housing conditions, horrible neighbors, no control of your life or destiny, no value in our society, and swallowed up into the beauracratic nightmare that is the NYC social service system.
I'd rather make sure I am not poor. What you are seeing is a small snippet of their life...what you are not seeing is the 5 other people that share the 2 bedroom apt, the dilapidated tenement building they live in, the lack of heat/hot water, the lack of decent food, no money to do anything besides sit in the same chair everyday, etc. There is nothing to envy with these people, trust me.
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