I disagree with you all

Not with me you don't...

The Emp got an insightful for that response...and I agree with much of what he said too.

 

The Emp got an insightful for that response...and I agree with much of what he said too.

Yes---- and an insightful to you, too Dharma...

Yes---- and an insightful to you, too Dharma

Why thank you, my love!  I'll be over to your blog in a second...

I remember that little RV that had roach populations that outnumber entire state we lived in then. We were at the low point then.

About 2 years I had serious problems with paying rent ( my mom's income stopped for 2 months ) I had all of 5 bucks for eating for that entire month. Ramen was too pricy for me. I had to live on the bread rolls. One tube is enough for one meal, and they are just 23 cents each. I was sooo F*ing sick of bread rolls by time my mom got income back.

After that I caught up on some bills since I wasn't paying for that 2 months other then rent and very little food.

That is my defination of poor.

I think that many people choose to be "poor" by making bad choices. Alcohal, drugs and cigarettes, seem to be priority over healthy food.

If you are on goverment assistance, you should not have high speed internet, you shouldn't smoke, drink or do drugs. You should not have cable or sattelite tv. I'm not paying taxes for you to have more than a hard working person.

Thats just my 2 cents....

But see, all this is due to the lucky straw i drew at birth, being born an american citizen. I admit im spoiled. Ive seen true poverty up close and personal, when we ventured far from the tourist areas in Mexico and saw entire familys living in hovels built out of cardboard boxes...sifting through the local landfills for anything they could make use of.

Amazing confession!

But there is a real poverty, just as there is a real wealth, in my opinion.

How true.

Most of the people I grew up around, by contrast, especially when we were really at the bottom, I suspect are still at the bottom because they refused to help themselves. They just wanted to sit back and pump out babies and complain about how unfair life was.

There you go again!

 

Dr Guy: yep, you were poor. When my dad had a heart attack and had to fold his business in the eighties, we were poor too.

Dharma, I have to agree with Draginol. I know we were not rich, but then I never thought of ourselves as poor either. We just had to work harder to get that soda pop that others took for granted. We drank a lot of kool-aid, and powdered milk, but we did have something to drink.

And if you have not caught the trend in my notes, I HATE POWDERED MILK! But it is ok on cereal.

Dharma, I have to agree with Draginol. I know we were not rich, but then I never thought of ourselves as poor either.

No, we never considered ourselves poor either.  Money was tight as far as us kids were concerned....I didn't realize how tight until after I had a family of my own and my mum told me about how hard it was.  Put it this way:  I needed a new pair of shoes once and had to wait a month to get them - mum had to budget her housekeeping money and cut corners in order to afford them.  But, we always got what we needed.  There just weren't any extras. Sodas were a rare luxury, as was eating out or getting take-out.  My dad had always been semi self-sufficient; we raised chickens and had a large vegetable garden, so we were never without fresh veggies or eggs (and the occasional chook when one of them got too old to lay any more).

We knew families that were worse off than us, so we never really thought of ourselves as 'poor'.

dharma: I think that's really the problem with the label "poor." Families used to try to fill their homes with laughter and love and make sacrifices for each other . . . never letting on to the children how tight things were. Nowadays, kids are constantly reminded, often by their parents, that they are "poor" and don't have what others have. Kids are taught that they should have everything and never have to wait or work or sacrifice. Being "poor" isn't really a problem . . . it's just another way of life, but being greedy and wanting instant gratification is a problem.

Kids are taught that they should have everything and never have to wait or work or sacrifice. Being "poor" isn't really a problem . . . it's just another way of life, but being greedy and wanting instant gratification is a problem.

You're totally correct.  I see so many airmen an their families getting into deep financial doo-doo because they have to have the big screen TV and the new furniture and the new car.  I sat down with one of dave's troops that had got himself into a world of hurt that way and we talked about it - he said "well, you guys managed to get all of your stuff.  We just wanted the same".  I explained to him that it took us 10 years to accumulate all of our belongings, and that we had to save and scrimp and buy a lot of it second hand. 

The advent of a 'buy now, pay later' culture hasn't helped any.  People see that they can have nice things NOW, and they want them NOW without thinking through the consequences.

I wish that more people would see living either at or slightly under their means as a good thing.  A really good thing. 

Poor is just a different way of life. It's dial up instead of DSL, dollar show instead of $8 movie tickets, and a '93 Oldsmobile Calais instead of a 2003 Dodge Ram. Poor can be happy . . . it all has to do with priorities.

Poor is not having internet or a computer, not having a car, or having a car that "has to make due another 5 years even though it's worn out", having to make pizza from scratch because you can't afford store bought.  Not going to movies because they are a luxury.

What you described is lower-middle class.  Which, is not "poor" (at least in my view)

I think that people are too greedy to realize what poor really is.  We expect luxuries, and if we don't have them, then we are "poor". 

I grew up in what was considered lower middle class for the time.  My Dad drove the "junk of the month" to work and back.  We packed our lunches.  We had soda only on special occasions.  We used dry milk because it was cheaper.  We bought clothes at Kmart and we didn't take vacations.  We went to a movie a few times a year, and we only ate out when it was a major event.  We only had one TV and we used an antennae for reception. We weren't poor.  We had a roof over our heads and 3 meals a day.  We had heat because we chopped wood and used it to heat our house.  We had clothing budgets and food budgets which we sticked to. 

I grew up around real poor kids.  They had shelter, but that was about all you could call the "house" that they lived in.  They had hair cuts done by their Mom, and wore clothes that their Mom made.  They had shoes that were fixed many times, and somebody giving them a stick of gum was like Christmas to them.  In todays standards, that would mean that they didn't have internet or a computer (oh, my!  How can that be?) or a VCR even.  They maybe could afford WalMart clothes on sales, only because it has become cheaper to buy WalMart clothes than it is to buy fabric.  Is that really "poverty" though?  If you can provide shelter, 3 meals a day, and clothes, is that "poverty"?  Or, is it only "poor" because you can't afford luxuries?

I've been poor or really even that close to it so my view may be slightly skewed but how do you feel about the idea of people who are accepting government aid being put on mandatory contraceptive in order to accept that aid? It's always disturbed me to see herds of children living in hovels when they should have stopped after the first one if they couldn't support them.

how do you feel about the idea of people who are accepting government aid being put on mandatory contraceptive in order to accept that aid? It's always disturbed me to see herds of children living in hovels when they should have stopped after the first one if they couldn't support them.

I personally think it's a brilliant idea, but the PC police won't go for it. 

I just don't get how people who can't afford to support themselves and the kids they already have think they can just keep churning babies out.  My husband and I had one accident....actually, it was more of a surprise...but after that we took the necessary steps to ensure we didn't have any more because we knew we couldn't afford it.

Some who claim government assistance see children as a meal ticket, though. 

I grew up in the 60's & 70's, being the eldest of five children. My father was a lowly corporal in the Australian Air Force and my mother didn't start working in part-time jobs until my youngest sibling was about 6 or 7. Prior to then, just looking after us all was a full-time job for my mother. At about the same time, I started high school. My afternoons were spent picking up two of my brothers, catching the bus home with them (40 minutes each way every day because we could only really afford to go to a Christian Brothers school where fees were virtually non-existant). I would pick up the two youngest as well, do whatever shopping my mother needed done and then take my brothers and sister home, where I would have a bunch of chores to do before tackling my homework.

Was I sad? Did I feel like I missed out on anything? At the time, I would have answered no. My parents loved each other and all us kids. We were never hungry or cold or made to feel like we were poor. I can remember my father saying numerous times things like 'you kids must think I'm made of money' but we rarely went without. Our house didn't have a colour television or a proper freezer until 1979. As for video players, well those were only things of dreams. My mother cut our hair, made our clothes and kept us well fed. I never once felt poor.

It was only until later, as an adult, when I was discussing my upbringing with a friend. He is an only child who had both parents in high paid jobs for many years. He quizzed me a little about my upbringing and then started laughing. When I asked what was so funny he replied that for all the years he knew me, he had no idea I came from such a poor background. He wasn't calling me white trash but he nearly did. I wasn't offended so much as suprised. Never once in my childhood did I consider myself poor or less fortunate. The way I saw it was that if my parents had the money, I wouldn't want for anything. As it was, I still got an electric guitar for Christmas when I was 15, I still got a pair of 'cool' jeans when I was 16 and I got to enjoy a well-rounded happy childhood. Thinking back now, I admire my parents even more because I don't know what sacrafices they had to make to get me these things.

Was I ever poor, really? I've never lived poorly in my life. I think even if I had nothing but my darling wife and beloved cat to call my own, I wouldn't consider myself poor. I now have a (rented) roof over my head, a DVD player, 2 computers, some nice furniture and a relatively new car. I have a dishwasher, a microwave and plenty of clothes (certainly more than two changes, thats for sure). I consider myself very lucky to have these things. But I would rather have my health. I would rather have peace of mind. I would rather have the love of a good woman and close friends. I would rather have nothing but happiness and be thought to be poor in someone else's opinion than be a over-possessed rich, sad person.

I have been poor. So poor I didnt have food to eat. Food is very relative when you are poor. If you don't have food, you are poor. Nevermind how much money you have or what you posess. If you have a roof over your head, clothes on your back and a car in your driveway, you are rich by my standards.

If you have a roof over your head, clothes on your back and a car in your driveway, you are rich by my standards.

By mine too.  Unfortunately, society deems it necessary to have $40,000 vehicles, $250,000 homes big screen TV's and brand name clothing.  If you don't have those, you're considered poor.

No wonder so many folks are living below the poverty level.

I have been poor. So poor I didnt have food to eat. Food is very relative when you are poor. If you don't have food, you are poor. Nevermind how much money you have or what you posess. If you have a roof over your head, clothes on your back and a car in your driveway, you are rich by my standards.

Indeed. I consider myself well-off by my own standards. I got a job now, car and place to live, and enough money for enjoyment. ( I buy lego as enjoyment, and build em. ) Therefore I am rich.

I buy lego as enjoyment, and build em.

That rocks!! I love lego....except for when it's left in the bottom of the bath tub and I step on it.  Then it's a pain in the ass.

Poor....is a much used, poorly understood term.  Someone else's 'poor' is my 'well off'.  I personally think that if you have clothes to wear, and you can afford to pay your rent, light, heat and buy food that you're doing okay.  'Poverty' to me means having to decide whether to pay your light bill or buy food because you can't afford to do both.  Poverty is always waiting for the eviction notice because you can't make rent that month.  Poverty is your kids having to wear shoes that are too small for them because you can't afford to buy more.

 

off topic question..... I am very new to this and whenever I try to even "create a blog" it refers me to log on...then nothing happens and the vicious circle starts over again...URGH! I have tried contacting the website, to no avail...please help! email me or something to tell me how! [email protected]