How poor are you?

Differences of view on life.

from JoeUser Forums
I posted this in reponse to person in other blog...

"I live on much less than that. I get about $6,000 a year plus about $3000 in college fin. aid. I don't feel like I'm poor at all. In fact, I got a nice laptop, computer, car and good place to live. My total monthly bill is just $600 including gas and food. Rest is spent on college bills.

The more stuff you have or want, the more you have to pay in order to support your higher standards of living. I live in little more than a room and have a good but old car that is fully paid off.

If you consider having your own apartment, car and just basic needs met such as food poor, what is bums? worse than poor?? I remember the days of living on $350 a month, in an 3 bedroom apartment with 5 other adults. I had to use bicycle to ride to store to buy food. I remember having my back hurt by hauling heavy food in the backpack and using bicycle handles to hold bags with milk jugs in it.

Considering that, I am definitely not poor now. Your standards of "poor" is much, much too high."

It's funny to me that there is such a major difference in standard of living. I have been poor most of my life. I don't consider myself poor lately, although, some (or many?) people would consider me to be very poor based on my income of just $9000 a year. That's not even 5 digit income a year.

I suspect that "poor" definition depends on person's own experence of living standards. People getting $20,000 a year may have higher standards of living and would consider owning 20 year old used car to be "poor". I may own a 20 year old car, but it runs very well and is very effective (for it's age) mileage per gallon. It's about 25 to 30 MPG, depending on weather.

It's same as place to live. I just live in a room. It's all I need to have at this point of living. I certainly will need more if I ever marry and have kids. Right now, It's all I need.

It, of course, don't mean I'm purely happy to stay at this level forever. I want improvement. I want to have a better standards of living, but that's why I'm going to college.


What do you consider poor? Why?
life
5,298 views 17 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
You have to consider that you are only supporting 1 person on that income. If you were the head of a household of a family of four and you had $9K for each person, you'd be making $36K which is definitely NOT poor.

I agree with your premise, though. I've also noticed that once you raise your standard of living it's very hard to go back down to a lower standard if for some reason you begin earning less money.

The standard of living for Americans, even "poor" Americans, is very high (and that's a good thing, in general).

To me there is a difference between poor and poverty. Poor is struggling to pay bills from time to time, but doesn't rule out a small bit of discretionary income. This describes lots of people, and it's not a bad thing. People can live poor and content their entire lives. And of course, if they don't like that standard of living, there are opportunities for them to become a higher wage earner.

Poverty, true poverty, is not being able to obtain food or shelter or proper clothing. In our generous nation full of opportunity, it should be almost impossible to find someone who fits this description.

At our lowest income my family (3 people at the time) lived on a little over $8K, but we lived in a home owned by our church (no rent) and we had one car (no payments as it was a gift to my husband from his parents when he was a teen).

Honestly, we did just fine. We had A LOT lower standard of living than we do now, but we never went without food. We just didn't buy a lot of crap or waste money.

We were a lot wiser with our finances back when we lived on $9K than we are now that my husband makes several times that.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
I agree.
I was making 14,000 a year last year, and still had a lot of money to spend. It is all about how you live and how you spend. I used to be horrible, wanting everything. Now I make careful purchases and don't try and spend every penny. BTW, that is 14,000 CND
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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
Poor would be not being able to get drunk n stoned on a regular basis.
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
Work... the curse of the drinking classes.
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
My family is so poor, when a friend came over and stepped on a cigarette my husband shouted, “Hey, who turned off the heater!”
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yo mama's so poor, the mat on her front porch says "Welfare."
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yo mama's so poor, she has to do drive-by shootings on the bus
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yo mama's so poor, when I saw her kicking a can down the street, I asked her what she was doing, she said "Moving."
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yo mama's so poor, she watches TV on an Etch-A-Sketch.
Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yo mama's so poor, they put her picture on food stamps
Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top
Poverty, true poverty, is not being able to obtain food or shelter or proper clothing. In our generous nation full of opportunity, it should be almost impossible to find someone who fits this description.


And it is. When 98 percent of Americans have at least one television set, it's pretty clear they're living with SOME level of comfort!
Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top
I use to volunteer to provide Xmas presents and food for one family per Xmas, and had someone else deliver the gifts. This one year I decided to handle it myself, did the shopping even dressed up as Santa when delivering the gifts.

The charitable service always gave me a large family, ages and sexes. This year was no different, they sent me a file on a family of 7 where the father and mother didn't work. When I arrived, I sat outside for a few moments to gather myself. Then knocked.... walked into a decent house, both parents appeared healthy, the house was in disarray a bit but each room was filled with reasonably nice furniture, TV's in 4 rooms, electronic games setting out, toys spread about the rooms, and as I walked out, two older cars in the driveway out back, one supposedly wasn't running....I was shocked!

I took my time to help what I thought was a family in need, by providing lots of food and gifts. Poor to me means no TV's or maybe one, limited number of shared toys, limited furniture, no transportation or one broken down old car, hand me downs with holes, a home that needed repair, very limited money and food from welfare with one person working pt and both looking for jobs.

Not remotely close. They appeared as many low income family's. They had almost everything and they were claiming to be poor, asking for help. Not remotely close to what I experienced as child of a poor family. Distrubed me so much haven't done it since.

Tova7.... great jokes, I needed a good laugh.
Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top
You have to consider that you are only supporting 1 person on that income. If you were the head of a household of a family of four and you had $9K for each person, you'd be making $36K which is definitely NOT poor.

That's true. You DO need more money to support a family, but main things that you need to have to support a family is a roof, food, water, electricity, and good life. You certainly don't need a NEW car or big house. Yet some people seem to think that way.

And it is. When 98 percent of Americans have at least one television set, it's pretty clear they're living with SOME level of comfort!
A few years ago, I would have agreed, but nowadays you can have a new 20 inch tv for less than $100. Way less if used...

TitanI9, that's a great story. It may be because they think themselves to be poor?

The rest, Thanks for funny jokes!

Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top
A few years ago, I would have agreed, but nowadays you can have a new 20 inch tv for less than $100. Way less if used...


And you could buy a hell of a lot of clothes at the thrift store, or food, or gas to get to work with that same $100. Trust me when I say that, if you're TRULY poor, $100 is a LOT of money.

When we moved here, we had enough money to buy what we needed for the month...but moving on a Greyhound bus means there are a lot of household basics to get: furniture, household appliances, spices and staples for the kitchen that you usually replace one at a time, pots and pans, dishes. We prioritize. Because of that fact, we were here almost six months before we purchased a TV and DVD/VCR combo.

I would be interested to know how many "poor" families have cable, satellite, or larger screen TVs (ours is a 19 inch because in evaluating our energy load to hopefully put up wind or solar in the future, we discovered that a 19 inch TV uses HALF the power of a 25 inch). I've lived poor and I've watched firsthand as families in our poor neighborhoods would squander their money on cigarettes, alcohol, lottery tickets, and/or expensive electronics that they couldn't afford.
Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top
The more you make, the more bills you have to pay.

In college (1and 1/2 years ago) I could live off 20 bucks a week. Food and beer, that was it.

Now I make over 50k a year and it seems like I have a harder time financially then I did in college. More bills, I bought a house, gf likes money, ect.

Id say, poor is only how you feel about what you have. A millionaire can be poor if it is not enough to cover his lavish lifestyle.
Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top
The more you make, the more bills you have to pay


This is only true if you're spending and buying more then you earn. Quit spending so much, get rid of the gf that likes money if she's not chipping in and live within your means.

Being poor isn't something we as individuals label upon ourselves while standing in front of a mirror, that's being pompous. Poor is when you have limited food, no job or a very low income and to many mouths to feed. Poor isn't when we have 5 TV's... it's when we have to sell one TV at time for food and transportation costs or to repair a tire on the car. Poor is when you have to decide what gets paid, rent or buy some small Xmas presents and needed cloths, or when a special days comes around and there's no money for even the smallest of gifts so you make gifts out of what's in the house. Poor is when you make large batch's of simple foods knowing seeking leftovers for many days, and meat is something you see on the TV you sold yesterday. It's when you hock your watch or ring for what ever amount so the kids get to eat and you pass on food that day in favor of paying some towards the rent you missed last week or month.

If someone feels poor setting in a decent rental or home they in fact own that's even half furnished with hand me downs, and a car that runs sets in on the street out front, eating 3 squares and no holes in your cloths, you can catch a movie now and again, and smile a lot, then the real truth is their values are distorted big time.... They should go look in the mirror and slap them self at least 5 times, get their attention ... and should be ashamed.

Which reminds me of an event in my office many years ago. A twenty's something beautiful young lady, x-USC arrived in our offices seeking a job. After she'd progressed through various interviews, they lead her into my office for the final. After exchanging pleasantries I began asking her questions. She appeared level headed, well mannered, dressed to the nines and seemed ok until I posed the proverbial question "what salary are you looking for" and why. No sooner had I asked, she blurted out that living in Newport isn't cheap, and then began to cry. Mind you she hadn't shared an amount yet, nor did I press her. I said to myself this isn't good especially for liability reasons, got up opened my office door so my secretary and others within ear shot could hear what was going on. She then abruptly stated like a demand that she needed "X" to cover her small BMW, pointing to her dress, her Nordstroms bill isn't cheap, keeping up her appearance, rent at the beach and other sundry costs. Nothing was mentioned regarding her lack of experience or skills and the amount was considerably higher then most fresh grads get. This for a degree in sociology and 4 major changes while attending 5 years of college. At this point all I want was to get her out of my office and the building which was accomplished soon there after.

She was a pitiful growing example of someone that felt poor yet didn't have a clue about what being poor really feels like.
Reply #17 from JoeUser Forums Top
Great examples.

The more you make, the more bills you have to pay


This is only true if you're spending and buying more then you earn. Quit spending so much, get rid of the gf that likes money if she's not chipping in and live within your means.


That's true. The more you want things, the more bills you will have to deal with. If you fully paid off the expensive car, you still have to pay more to insurance. In some cases, large increase in insurance bill indeed...

Same applies to buying a house. There's a whole lot of bills usual apt renter don't have to deal with.. like property tax, sewer, and bills normally paid by apt owners. It can easily total to about $200 to $400 more, on top of new house payments, if not paid in full.