Tough room. 
Youâre spot on. Priorities can help or harm. Decisions matter.
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Could part of the problem be that people on message boards use anecdotes about gambling and smartphones to justify their lack of empathy towards the poor, and use that to justify their support for laws and policies that work to make it harder to escape poverty?
I think so.
which are like 5% of their total yearly spending.
Yes but the main problem is that inflation and wage stagnation.
being poor is expensive, majority of your money is gone before you cash your paycheck which is why bank make billion in overdraft fees and payday loans are common in poor communities.
the system want to create nation of debtors, which is why the major investment companies and bank spend tens of billion buying single family homes to turn into renting properties.
If you stopped eating Avacato toast you could afford a house.
a house in Toronto sold for 460K over asking price.
Iâm sure if I skipped Starbucks I could have made an offer.
My family grew up in poverty, and my parents still tithed. Then when I grew up and moved out, my dad lost his job and my parents still tithed.
A church shouldnât have been taking money from my family-that transaction should have gone the other way.
Cigarettes and tattoos arenât the reason poor people remain poor.
The cycle of poverty is hard to break. In many cases, itâs all people know. Itâs REALLY difficult to TEACH people how not to live that way, and that there is a way out.
âBootstrapsâ and âmove somewhere with opportunityâ have been rallying cries from many for some time, but itâs unfortunately just not that easy.
How is the single mother raising 2 kids, with an ex who doesnât pay child support, a barely functioning car, and little family to help, supposed to get an education to boot strap her way out of min wage and welfare?
How is the single-income family, with a mother at home raising 2 kids, supposed to pack up and move when theyâre already living month to month on a single income?
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You need a phone to have a job, most people finance their phones for a monthly payment.
50-100K in student loans because going to college is mandatory to get a adult job in most cases
.
You either need to buy a car or take public transport (car need to be financed so that another loan) or public transport that limit where you can live and where you can work
40% of your yearly income goes to rent, which is just throwing money away to pay someone else mortgage,
Food? your limited on where you can shop if you donât have a car, so prices very
You need to pay for car insurance if you have a car, health insurance, etc
Your blaming poverty on personal mistakes.
when the economic system is built to KEEP people in poverty / low income.
people are not poor because they bought a coffee on their way to their â â â â â â paying job with no benefits.
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Youâre not seeing the entire post.
Iâve repeatedly stated there are factors beyond oneâs control.
Lost a good job & found a much lower paying one, but are working that job.
Loss of spouse or spousal income.
Loss of income due to disability.
I havenât stated itâs 100% of the problem of the poor, but might it be a PART of the problem?
personal mistakes are part of it.
the current system isnât built to lift people out of poverty into the middle class, the current system is to increase profit for the wealthy on the back of the labour of American workers.
My parents could afford to pay for college by working part time.
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Poverty isnât a function of ethics; itâs a consequence of policy.
I used to donate plasma twice a week. It paid for my cigarettes and food. Probably couldâve gotten more tattoos if I didnât smoke. There are some really talented poor people with their own tattoo kits.
That is what government assistance was intended for. Not to create permanent dependency.
The basics of budgeting, financial management should be a required course in high school.
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#1 rule to avoid being poor is to NOT have a child if your not married and canât afford to support that child. Raising a child is expensive.
I wonder how many kids you need before making a profit?
For six months, families can get a $300 monthly benefit per child age 5 and under, amounting to $3,600 this year. The measure provides $250 each month per kid age 6 and 17, totaling $3,000. Half of the benefit will come as a tax refund.
If all goes to plan, the federal government will deposit cash directly into the bank accounts of 36.2 million families
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I can only speak from my own experiences in North Jersey. Iâve met and have known a fair share of people who are poor and/or who have done nothing with their life (know a handful of men in their 50âs still living off their mother). By and large itâs their own fault from the choices they made in life. Clearly there are exceptions like a woman with two kids whose husband died, but what percent is that?
Exactly whose fault do you think it is?
I donât agree with this at all.
It is a question of pathos and priority.
That is dehumanizing IMO.
Mom had three boys in the late 50s-early 60s dad gets sick. Northern jersey. So what do you do with the exceptions. Which my mom was.
Itâs not so easy with pat answers.
We turned out okay. Lol. Though a lot of support from relatives and a lot of hard work.
Most people in our situation donât have support like we had.
Family rules. OtherwiseâŚ
Allan
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Ends up like my friend Neal. Similar situation. Dad abandoned mom with three boys.
Yikes. Friend ends up in prison. Brother is murdered. Other brother unsure.
No support for family from relatives. Double yikes. Only the govt. triple yikes.
Tale of two poor families growing up in the same exact neighborhood at the same time.
One a success story. The other a tragedy.
Allan
In NJ does not someone in that situation qualify for welfare and Section Eight for housing?
