*clapping* -----Original Message----- From: Judah McAuley [mailto:ju...@wiredotter.com] Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2012 9:35 PM To: cf-community Subject: Re: Why poor people tend to stay poor
If you don't think people on welfare know a thing or two about managing money then you are an idiot. Having spent time growing up on welfare, I can tell you that people tend to know exactly where every single penny is going. Because there are no extra pennies. The problem (and this is something I've suffered from) is that you only know how to deal with hand to mouth. There is no experience investing extra money because there has never been extra money. If you somehow happen to have a bit more at the end of a month, that is (at best) getting put into a savings account because you know that you'll be short again sometime soon. The short months always outnumber the ones that aren't. That's why you're fucking poor. Right now I'm 38 and doing fairly well. Paid off a good portion of my debt. I haven't emptied my savings account in several years. Still pushing toward getting the mythical 6 months of living expenses solid in my savings account. And I know that I really ought to be creating not just a savings plan but an actual investment plan. But I still haven't. Know why? It's because I grew up poor, I see the bullshit in the markets and the manipulation and I have a hard time trusting anyone else with my money because I'm used to not having enough. I'm a really fucking smart guy. I know numbers and compound interest. I have a math degree. I've got everything going for me that the woman you are talking about doesn't. But I still haven't gotten completely over the hump psychologically. It isn't about expecting the State to take care of you. That may be true for a small minority of people but largely it is a red herring. It is about expectations. Expecting to get screwed over by the system. Expecting the rich to have theirs and plenty of yours too. About knowing that when you are poor, chances are pretty good that you're gong to stay poor. That shit is hard to shake, believe me. I'm all in favor of education. Helping people understand finance, economics, budgeting...good stuff. That isn't the real problem though. That will help, but it isn't the real problem. The real problem is inequality. It is poverty. It's a lack of jobs. It's a poor education. It is a legacy of not being able to realistically believe that working hard and saving your pennies will result in a truly different life. Until you solve those problems, financial education won't get people very far. You can lecture people on welfare all you want about how to save money but welfare sure as shit ain't going to give them two pennies to rub together. Judah On Sun, Mar 18, 2012 at 3:15 PM, PT <cft...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On 3/18/2012 6:03 PM, Maureen wrote: >> >> It's a bit of a leap of logic to take the actions of one poorly >> educated person and label an entire class of people as ignorant. > > Financially ignorant. > >> Although I will agree with that throwing money at it is not the >> solution. Education about how to manage money would be a much better >> tactic. > > People complain about the state of social security. Well, if people > knew how to plan for retirement, it might not be as much of an issue. > I am not suggesting making everyone millionaires, as that just isn't > possible, but enough to live on without government assistance after > retiring is the goal. > > I would be willing for social welfare to come with a few strings > attached, namely that the recipient is required to become educated in > the basic principles of finance, if they are ab ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:348734 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
