Fascinating Judah. Question, and please feel free to say "none of your effin'g businesss", but: Why was your family poor growing up?
I ask because your message below seems to suggest a fear of the rich screwing you over and making your poor again. Was that was happened to your family? On Sun, Mar 18, 2012 at 9:34 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:348741 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
