I know I found the idea insulting when someone was trying to get me to take a class like that back in the day. My problem was that rent was 800 a month, day care was 300 a week, my salary was 300 a week, and some judge figured the kids' dad fair share of this was 300 a month, because that was a dollar a month more than the income limit for assistance programs.
It was that last part that was killing me, not an inability to add up. I was a freaking business major, with a comp sci minor. The child support collections people told me I was plain lucky to get anything, and that most fathers don't pay their child support at all. This was probably statistically true over the population of the state of Maryland, when I got and for sure it made me not a priority from their point of view, but when I got this whole thing back into court five years later -- with no help from the state, mind you -- I found out that the whole five years I'd been struggling with this he was crying poverty while making $79,000 a year. I think he could have afforded to chip in half his kids' rent, yanno? He was living in his parents' basement. But anyway. I have seen quite a few stories about that woman. No, she is not what's wrong with America today. She was totally supposed to report the income. I suspect that she didn't because she had got it through her head that she could not make it on her own and would always need assistance. I have met quite a few women like that. Also, it's so hard to get into some programs that people don't like to go off, because they're afraid they won't be able to get when they need it. That's what I think was really going on there. It's quite likely that it was compounded with some native fecklessness and maybe some budgets that got blown on booze or drugs,sure. But I actually think that the entitlement situation would be fiscally healthier and better for recipients if it was easier to get on and harder to *stay*. At the moment the system is so overwhelmed checking the stories of the people signing up that there's really no mechanism for making people report changed circumstances until they have to recertify. Even then, I remember telling a food stamp worker that I'd gotten a temporary job and she decided that even though, strictly speaking, it put me over the income limit, she was going to ignore it because she did not want to penalize me for for working. If she followed the regs and ended my food stamps then signed me back up when it ended two weeks later we'd both spend a couple of days on this and I'd be worse off. On Sun, Mar 18, 2012 at 7:34 PM, Judah McAuley <ju...@wiredotter.com> wrote: > > 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:348738 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
