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Obviously not perfect, since it assumes you have kids and a car. But it goes to show how difficult it is for people to simply "pull themselves up by the bootstraps".
I made it through, but with only $332. Ouch. Child enrichment activities and paying down debt ain't cheap.
I made it with $1058. Some of this is realistic, not all of it is. A minimum payment of $250 on a credit card? Never heard of such a thing. I've had credit cards, I've never had a minimum payment that high. They also gave 0 option to buy things on sale - everything was full price. So some weeks you eat Top Ramen, some weeks you can eat the chicken because it's on sale for 40 cents a pound.
If someone is poor, they will find ways to save money wherever they can, and this little test didn't even offer that possibility.
Granted, I've argued many times on here that it is expensive to find quality, nutritional food more often than not, but it is also possible to find sales - and you switch up what you're eating based on those sales. And you learn to create things - some work, some are disasters, but you try anyway.
And they also failed to mention or offer that people may own their cars outright. "Having a car" doesn't have to mean "have a car payment". Eventually it's paid off and you no longer owe anything, therefore, you wouldn't have a car payment, or collectors calling you and repossessing your car.
So some real world situations, but they didn't acknowledge or offer those many other real world situations. Some of them I would have used "ask a friend" like doing my laundry, but I'm not going to let them plaster their link on my social media just to answer that question.
To add: I have been very poor. I did my laundry in my bathtub...but you didn't see that as an option. I did eat Top Ramen for a year - which is why, to this day, I cannot stand Top Ramen. I didn't go out even if I "needed a break" as the test says. Sure, we need breaks, but it doesn't require a night out on the town to get that break. You can find plenty of things to do for free, or you can stay home and create things, or read, or whatever. A "break" does not mean "shell out money". They also failed to acknowledge that some people are veterans. If I am so poor that I can't afford health care, well, I'm a veteran, I can use the VA - it's part of my benefits for serving the country. And I wouldn't be irresponsible by having a kid if I was that poor, so there would be no whining about extra-curricular activities after school or whatever else that was in there pertaining to the kid. (I answered, "too bad, so sad, don't have the money"), because there are other things the kid can do after school that will shape them and teach them things that do not cost $50 for a uniform.
I've faced some of the questions they had on there when I was poor, but they aren't even realistic in possible solutions on many of them. Still, I managed to still have a grand after paying the bills and food for a month.
It is doable. Of course it's not pleasant. But that doesn't mean I need to bail everyone out who is poor, especially those who think they "deserve" to spend untold amounts of money on nights out when they don't have it, or those who can't or won't even try to find solutions to their problems. You don't need a washer and dryer - put the damn clothes in your bathtub, fill it up, put the detergent in, clean the clothes, rinse them, wring them, hang them up to dry. Is that fun? NO! But if you don't have the money, that's what you do.
Last edited by Three Wolves In Snow; 03-19-2019 at 08:14 AM..
Poor people live can better than a new college grad:
Poor person: Medicaid, food stamps, subsidized housing in townhouse for herself and child (and renting out spare room for cash under the table....shhhh....don't tell!), Medicaid for child, lunches for child, subsidized utilities, subsidized public transportation
New college grad: health insurance premiums, lots of $1 Mac-n-cheese dinners that first year, a studio apartment in a building with disgusting roaches, cheapest phone plan because can't afford more, keep winter temp on 65 to space money, walk 20 minutes to work rather than pay for subway fare (carrying work shoes in tote), unless it's raining
Poor person: The girl who answered the phones at my first job
New college grad: Guess
I made it with $1058. Some of this is realistic, not all of it is. A minimum payment of $250 on a credit card? Never heard of such a thing. I've had credit cards, I've never had a minimum payment that high. They also gave 0 option to buy things on sale - everything was full price. So some weeks you eat Top Ramen, some weeks you can eat the chicken because it's on sale for 40 cents a pound.
If someone is poor, they will find ways to save money wherever they can, and this little test didn't even offer that possibility.
Granted, I've argued many times on here that it is expensive to find quality, nutritional food more often than not, but it is also possible to find sales - and you switch up what you're eating based on those sales. And you learn to create things - some work, some are disasters, but you try anyway.
And they also failed to mention or offer that people may own their cars outright. "Having a car" doesn't have to mean "have a car payment". Eventually it's paid off and you no longer owe anything, therefore, you wouldn't have a car payment, or collectors calling you and repossessing your car.
So some real world situations, but they didn't acknowledge or offer those many other real world situations. Some of them I would have used "ask a friend" like doing my laundry, but I'm not going to let them plaster their link on my social media just to answer that question.
To add: I have been very poor. I did my laundry in my bathtub...but you didn't see that as an option. I did eat Top Ramen for a year - which is why, to this day, I cannot stand Top Ramen. I didn't go out even if I "needed a break" as the test says. Sure, we need breaks, but it doesn't require a night out on the town to get that break. You can find plenty of things to do for free, or you can stay home and create things, or read, or whatever. A "break" does not mean "shell out money". They also failed to acknowledge that some people are veterans. If I am so poor that I can't afford health care, well, I'm a veteran, I can use the VA - it's part of my benefits for serving the country. And I wouldn't be irresponsible by having a kid if I was that poor, so there would be no whining about extra-curricular activities after school or whatever else that was in there pertaining to the kid. (I answered, "too bad, so sad, don't have the money"), because there are other things the kid can do after school that will shape them and teach them things that do not cost $50 for a uniform.
I've faced some of the questions they had on there when I was poor, but they aren't even realistic in possible solutions on many of them. Still, I managed to still have a grand after paying the bills and food for a month.
It is doable. Of course it's not pleasant. But that doesn't mean I need to bail everyone out who is poor, especially those who think they "deserve" to spend untold amounts of money on nights out when they don't have it, or those who can't or won't even try to find solutions to their problems. You don't need a washer and dryer - put the damn clothes in your bathtub, fill it up, put the detergent in, clean the clothes, rinse them, wring them, hang them up to dry. Is that fun? NO! But if you don't have the money, that's what you do.
Thank you for the well thought out answer. I feel like this test isn't so much a simulator of simply being poor, as much as a simulator for the difficulty of reversing unwise life decisions.
I'm not advocating welfare for them, or even undue sympathy. However I do think that it only takes one bad decision to cascade into being boxed into making many more bad life decisions in order to delay the consequences of the previous bad decision.
I've seen a lot of people judge others as idiots who are constantly choosing to make dumb choices without realizing that even one wrong turn in life at a young age can trap you.
I've certainly been poor as well, down to washing clothes in a plastic tub in the shower. And I can't stand lentils and bananas to this day, because it's all I ate when I was in college. I'm grateful I made decent financial decisions given my circumstances, but I *definitely* made stupid decisions in other areas of life when I was 18-20 that I was very fortunate to not have go VERY wrong.
Like I said, the simulator was way off in many ways, but I think it communicates the gist of it. Being more understanding of others doesn't require subsidizing them, and regular people would have more power if they didn't pit themselves so readily against one another.
Poor people live can better than a new college grad:
Poor person: Medicaid, food stamps, subsidized housing in townhouse for herself and child (and renting out spare room for cash under the table....shhhh....don't tell!), Medicaid for child, lunches for child, subsidized utilities, subsidized public transportation
New college grad: health insurance premiums, lots of $1 Mac-n-cheese dinners that first year, a studio apartment in a building with disgusting roaches, cheapest phone plan because can't afford more, keep winter temp on 65 to space money, walk 20 minutes to work rather than pay for subway fare (carrying work shoes in tote), unless it's raining
Poor person: The girl who answered the phones at my first job
New college grad: Guess
I used to work for a non-profit serving the homeless community, where I learned that the waiting list for subsidized housing was at least 2 years, typically closer to 5 years. I'm sure it varies according to jurisdiction, but this was in the Bay Area.
I quit the game after the 9th bad thing to happen inside of 1 week.
IVE BEEN THERE.
Hell Im almost there now. I put in 70 hours a week playing catchup after years of having to do contracts.
Ive twice had to relo within my area with little notice. Car repairs at bad times? check. Landlords stealing deposits. Check. Bronze plan drama. Check.
Im not nearly as unlucky as the person in that simulation. Almost no one is.
Years ago I had to move out literally overnight with only $5.00 of coins in a ziploc bag. I called some friends I knew from a previous job and moved in with four lifeguards. Being the only female they gave me my own room. There were 5 of us in a 4 bedroom condo in a really crappy part of town.
The next day I went to one of those day laborer places where we were paid minimum wage and was bussed out to Disney to work in one of their kitchens. We were paid cash, which I desperately needed, and I worked there for a week or two until I found a real job.
A friend stopped by to visit one day soon after I moved in and noticed I had only bananas at that time to eat. She suggested I at least make some Mac and cheese. The reality was I couldn’t afford to buy milk to make it. Soon after, I had earned enough to start eating pasta with some jarred sauce. I lived on that for a while. My car kept breaking down so I rode my bike to my job as a secretary and earned the respect of my boss for doing so. This was my poorest time and it did strengthen my resolve to never again be so vulnerable. That crap hole that we lived in is condemned now, it was even sketchy back then.
The silly game is unrealistic with an obvious agenda.
Location: Live:Downtown Phoenix, AZ/Work:Greater Los Angeles, CA
27,606 posts, read 14,604,784 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Three Wolves In Snow
I made it with $1058. Some of this is realistic, not all of it is. A minimum payment of $250 on a credit card? Never heard of such a thing. I've had credit cards, I've never had a minimum payment that high. They also gave 0 option to buy things on sale - everything was full price. So some weeks you eat Top Ramen, some weeks you can eat the chicken because it's on sale for 40 cents a pound.
If someone is poor, they will find ways to save money wherever they can, and this little test didn't even offer that possibility.
Granted, I've argued many times on here that it is expensive to find quality, nutritional food more often than not, but it is also possible to find sales - and you switch up what you're eating based on those sales. And you learn to create things - some work, some are disasters, but you try anyway.
And they also failed to mention or offer that people may own their cars outright. "Having a car" doesn't have to mean "have a car payment". Eventually it's paid off and you no longer owe anything, therefore, you wouldn't have a car payment, or collectors calling you and repossessing your car.
So some real world situations, but they didn't acknowledge or offer those many other real world situations. Some of them I would have used "ask a friend" like doing my laundry, but I'm not going to let them plaster their link on my social media just to answer that question.
To add: I have been very poor. I did my laundry in my bathtub...but you didn't see that as an option. I did eat Top Ramen for a year - which is why, to this day, I cannot stand Top Ramen. I didn't go out even if I "needed a break" as the test says. Sure, we need breaks, but it doesn't require a night out on the town to get that break. You can find plenty of things to do for free, or you can stay home and create things, or read, or whatever. A "break" does not mean "shell out money". They also failed to acknowledge that some people are veterans. If I am so poor that I can't afford health care, well, I'm a veteran, I can use the VA - it's part of my benefits for serving the country. And I wouldn't be irresponsible by having a kid if I was that poor, so there would be no whining about extra-curricular activities after school or whatever else that was in there pertaining to the kid. (I answered, "too bad, so sad, don't have the money"), because there are other things the kid can do after school that will shape them and teach them things that do not cost $50 for a uniform.
I've faced some of the questions they had on there when I was poor, but they aren't even realistic in possible solutions on many of them. Still, I managed to still have a grand after paying the bills and food for a month.
It is doable. Of course it's not pleasant. But that doesn't mean I need to bail everyone out who is poor, especially those who think they "deserve" to spend untold amounts of money on nights out when they don't have it, or those who can't or won't even try to find solutions to their problems. You don't need a washer and dryer - put the damn clothes in your bathtub, fill it up, put the detergent in, clean the clothes, rinse them, wring them, hang them up to dry. Is that fun? NO! But if you don't have the money, that's what you do.
That is actually very realistic. I had a $300 minimum payment on one card (now paid off) when it had a $10,000 balance on it. Most credit cards have the minimum payment at 3% of the balance or $25, whichever is greater. And $300 is 3% of $10,000
And a paid off car if you're poor is usually in the shop quite a bit, so car payment $ is replaced by repair bill $. My 2001 Chevy S10 I bought in cash straight up, and after 6 months, the POS was in the shop once a month. And after owning it for 4 years, I spent more $ in repair bills than I had paid to buy the f-ing thing (including 2 clutch jobs and an engine rebuild)
Last edited by FirebirdCamaro1220; 03-19-2019 at 01:34 PM..
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