Author Topic: FranLab is getting evicted  (Read 251093 times)

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Offline rsjsouza

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #250 on: October 23, 2018, 06:04:56 pm »
Few if any countries in the world have the homeless problems the US has.

The US is the worst country in the developed world by far to be poor in, with the possible exception of Mexico.
If you are putting Mexico in the "developed world" bucket, there are much worse places than US to be poor.

Quite frequently, disputes between drug cartels become quite violent in the slums of the main cities in Brasil. This one was a big one about a year ago:
https://youtu.be/uFZF3f8RtPY?t=20
(there are some fireworks mixed with guns, but a certain point you can hear what it looks like a .50 cal)

That is another in an area known as Gaza Strip in Rio:
https://youtu.be/7Ls36bf5uyM?t=1

« Last Edit: October 23, 2018, 06:21:09 pm by rsjsouza »
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Offline Richard Crowley

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #251 on: October 23, 2018, 06:18:54 pm »
Few if any countries in the world have the homeless problems the US has.
The US is the worst country in the developed world by far to be poor in, with the possible exception of Mexico.
Dunno how much traveling you have done around the planet, especially the "3rd world"?
Non-working transients with drug (including alcohol) addictions to support have it infinitely better in the US than hard-working, honest, sincere clean-living people in most of the "3rd world".  Visiting many parts of Africa, Asia, and Oceania lowered my sympathy for many of the homeless in the US.  If they want to stay high on mind-altering substances all day, that is their choice. 

If the US is all as bad as @cdev and others paint it, why thousands of people try to break in every day?  Including a well-publicized army of >10K people working their way up from Central America as this is written.  Are they all fools? 
 
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Offline GreyWoolfe

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #252 on: October 23, 2018, 06:39:03 pm »
The thing is, just outside the city limits of Philadelphia would save a ton in taxes - they city is higher than the surrounding areas plus they have an additional sales tax above the state one, AND heaven help you if you are stuck within the city and like to have an occasional soda or other sweet drink, as there is a special extra tax on those things. Property is many of those just outside the city places would likely be less expensive as well.
 But I get it, some people are just city people. I know at least two other people who live well within the city of Philadelphia. They moan and complain about things all the time, but if you suggest there are other alternatives they immediately get defensive and complain that it's so much easier for them to get to things without a car (yet they pay a fortune to keep a car parked in the city so they can go to other places on occasion - go figure.  Where I live, no, I can't walk ot the mall (easily) or many of the restaurants around me, but those things also aren;t far. The traffic is not like driving in the city - it takes me 5 minutes to drive from my house to my office. Were I younger and in better shape, I could possibly bike it in nice weather, but I do live at the top of a fairly steep hill. Getting To work would be a breeze, it's getting home that would be less fun. I did live in Philly at one point, just started my first job out of college, and I was by myself, so a small place was affordable. Still had to drive to work, but I did have several close things I could walk to, which was nice. Thing is, when I later switched jobs and move outside of the city, the same rent money got me a larger 2 bedroom place that was as nice as the place I had in the city. It's all tradeoffs - for me I'd rather live where I have space (I have a decent size yard) rather than pay extra to live inside city limits, yet I am not in such a fancy area that housing costs are unaffordable - my house was relatively inexpensive compared to some places around me, but the neighborhood is good and fairly quiet.

I am with you on this.  When I lived in S Florida, I rented a 1 bedroom apartment in a so-so neighborhood that Mrs GreyWoolfe laughingly called the room under the stairs, 550 sq ft, for $600 a month.  When I bought the house we have now in Central Florida is a small city of about 20K people, we have 3 X the size, 3 X the bedrooms for less than twice what I paid to rent.  Granted, the only thing we can walk to is the small convenience store outside the subdivision that is about a half mile away but everything we need is a short drive.  On top of that, I am a remote FSE working from home and Mrs GreyWoolfe works less than 3 miles from home.

If the US is all as bad as @cdev and others paint it, why thousands of people try to break in every day?  Including a well-publicized army of >10K people working their way up from Central America as this is written.  Are they all fools? 

No, they are the smart ones.  We the people are the fools that keep electing government officials that encourage this to happen so they get extra, often illegal votes so they can stay in power. 
"Heaven has been described as the place that once you get there all the dogs you ever loved run up to greet you."
 
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Offline tooki

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #253 on: October 23, 2018, 06:41:05 pm »
Dunno how much traveling you have done around the planet, especially the "3rd world"?
Non-working transients with drug (including alcohol) addictions to support have it infinitely better in the US than hard-working, honest, sincere clean-living people in most of the "3rd world".  Visiting many parts of Africa, Asia, and Oceania lowered my sympathy for many of the homeless in the US.  If they want to stay high on mind-altering substances all day, that is their choice. 
I think you’ve got it all wrong. You do realize that a HUGE percentage of drug (and alcohol!) addiction is self-medication for otherwise untreated mental health problems? Nobody wants to become a heroin addict. It starts as an escape from some situation that feels even worse.

As the Vietnam war was wrapping up, there was a huge worry back home that returning GIs were going to become a huge wave of heroin addicts, because heroin use in the Vietnam war theater was rampant. But what actually happened was that very few veterans remained heroin users. As it turns out, the heroin use was popular over there because it was a way to cope with the horrors around them. Once removed from that situation, nearly all of them simply stopped using it.

Similar experiments performed more recently on rats show that they behave the exact same way: if their living situation is awful (i.e. a small cage with nothing to do), the rats will choose to use drugs, often choosing it in lieu of food. Take the same rats and put them into a “rat paradise” and they stop using the drugs, even if they remain available.

So, if you were homeless, do you think that’d be happy? Or do you think you’d feel desperate? Do you think you might want a little mental escape from that? (And before you compare developing nations, consider that relative wealth does make a difference mentally. Being destitute in a fundamentally rich country is a very different individual experience than it is in a country where almost everyone else is destitute, too!)

Yes, some people become homeless because of drug addiction (this is almost always due to unresolved mental health issues or traumas). But many become addicts because of homelessness and destitution!

So, maybe consider having a bit more sympathy for our homeless and those with substance abuse problems. Their story isn’t as simple as you think it is.
 
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Offline tooki

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #254 on: October 23, 2018, 06:43:14 pm »
No, they are the smart ones.  We the people are the fools that keep electing government officials that encourage this to happen so they get extra, often illegal votes so they can stay in power.
Yeah, all those illegal votes that have proven to be pure fantasy invented by one party to create FUD.  :rant:
 
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Offline nctnico

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #255 on: October 23, 2018, 06:57:19 pm »
Few if any countries in the world have the homeless problems the US has.
The US is the worst country in the developed world by far to be poor in, with the possible exception of Mexico.
Dunno how much traveling you have done around the planet, especially the "3rd world"?
Non-working transients with drug (including alcohol) addictions to support have it infinitely better in the US than hard-working, honest, sincere clean-living people in most of the "3rd world".  Visiting many parts of Africa, Asia, and Oceania lowered my sympathy for many of the homeless in the US.  If they want to stay high on mind-altering substances all day, that is their choice. 

If the US is all as bad as @cdev and others paint it, why thousands of people try to break in every day?  Including a well-publicized army of >10K people working their way up from Central America as this is written.  Are they all fools?
I think you need to add some gradients here. I'd guess that a lot of the homeless people became homeless due to an inability to work and no social security or family to fall back on. The rest of the misery probably followed later.
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 
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Offline tooki

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #256 on: October 23, 2018, 07:25:51 pm »
I think you need to add some gradients here. I'd guess that a lot of the homeless people became homeless due to an inability to work and no social security or family to fall back on. The rest of the misery probably followed later.
Absolutely. Most Americans are less than one paycheck away from being broke. 40% of Americans cannot afford an unexpected $400 expense!

And with American austerity-based safety nets in a political climate that assumes poverty to be a personal moral failing, meaningful safety nets do not exist.

Depending on who you believe and how it’s counted, 4% to 62% of personal bankruptcies in USA are due to illness/disease (medical bills, loss of income, etc.). IMHO, it’s scandalous that even one person should go bankrupt due to illness or disease. Never mind hundreds of thousands per year. Not in a country that, as a whole (per-capita), is as wealthy as USA.

So one unexpected $500 medical bill, and almost half of Americans are at financial risk.
 
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Offline maginnovision

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #257 on: October 23, 2018, 07:39:08 pm »
I think you need to add some gradients here. I'd guess that a lot of the homeless people became homeless due to an inability to work and no social security or family to fall back on. The rest of the misery probably followed later.
Absolutely. Most Americans are less than one paycheck away from being broke. 40% of Americans cannot afford an unexpected $400 expense!

And with American austerity-based safety nets in a political climate that assumes poverty to be a personal moral failing, meaningful safety nets do not exist.

Depending on who you believe and how it’s counted, 4% to 62% of personal bankruptcies in USA are due to illness/disease (medical bills, loss of income, etc.). IMHO, it’s scandalous that even one person should go bankrupt due to illness or disease. Never mind hundreds of thousands per year. Not in a country that, as a whole (per-capita), is as wealthy as USA.

So one unexpected $500 medical bill, and almost half of Americans are at financial risk.

Now how many of those people have new phones and cars? Health insurance with high premiums and deductibles? There are other things you can't measure reliably too, steps taken to improve the situation, earnest efforts to keep some money around. Actual skills vs what is required near them. There is never a single reason which is why the individuals are generally considered to be at fault. I read an article today on cnn where Seattle raised the min wage to 15 but people actually only make 1-2% more due to cut hours. This is in a busy urban area. Nothing said about cost of living changes though.
 

Offline tooki

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #258 on: October 23, 2018, 07:46:59 pm »
Simple: US wages are too low relative to cost of living. Nobody wants a high-deductible insurance policy. Phones are a necessity, as are reliable cars in nearly the entire country. You cannot set aside money you don’t have.

But go ahead, try and argue the poverty-as-a-moral-failing angle...
 

Offline tooki

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #259 on: October 23, 2018, 07:54:06 pm »
P.S. Look into how expensive it is to be poor. Everything you use costs you more than if you have money. From grocery stores in poor neighborhoods charging more (often a lot more), to not having the cash up-front to buy things in bulk (never mind afford a Costco membership), to how you pay more for insurance, etc.

(And “poor” is relative: many Americans work 2–3 jobs just to stay afloat, never mind have the time or money to pay for school, or childcare to make the time, etc. There’s no way to save in those situations.)
 
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Offline tooki

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #260 on: October 23, 2018, 07:56:47 pm »
P.P.S. Funny that you mention Seattle, since I just saw another article saying that the situation in Seattle is actually looking much better now than initially thought. https://apple.news/Ao8FDA_OmR7qNSQEJ-8rlvA
 

Offline maginnovision

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #261 on: October 23, 2018, 08:07:04 pm »
P.S. Look into how expensive it is to be poor. Everything you use costs you more than if you have money. From grocery stores in poor neighborhoods charging more (often a lot more), to not having the cash up-front to buy things in bulk (never mind afford a Costco membership), to how you pay more for insurance, etc.

(And “poor” is relative: many Americans work 2–3 jobs just to stay afloat, never mind have the time or money to pay for school, or childcare to make the time, etc. There’s no way to save in those situations.)

Actually I used to be poor. We had stores where things were SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than the normal chain stores. They had limited selection but everything you'd need. Bread, eggs, milk, cheese, canned goods, fresh fruit and vegetables, cream, some other "luxury" food stuffs but mostly essentials. As for Seattle the article is likely based on the same research which I haven't read so I'm not going to try to say much more than what I read. actually it looks like mostly the same article but on cnn business rather than just cnn.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2018, 08:10:43 pm by maginnovision »
 

Offline tooki

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #262 on: October 23, 2018, 08:12:53 pm »
It depends a lot on where you are. Some places have cheap stores like that. Many poor urban neighborhoods do not, leaving people reliant on expensive corner stores.

Here’s a pertinent recent event from my adopted hometown, Baltimore: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/03/27/597304848/salvation-army-opens-first-grocery-store-ever-in-baltimore
 

Offline cdev

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #263 on: October 23, 2018, 08:18:05 pm »
Please don't get me wrong. This is my home and even with its problems I love it. I wouldn't complain if I didn't think there was hope. Its just that well organized, quite evil and cynical people are literally trying to steal all we hold dear and our futures. In ways that none of us would agree with. And they are also doing their best to divide us. Using contrived 'wedge issues' that divert attention and prevent discussion of the real problems.

No, I won't blame the victims. The people in places like LA's huge "Skid Row" area are just as often as not people who had some major misfortune happen to them and it just ruined their lives. The health care situation in the US in particular is absolutely criminal. And the situation, artificially prolonged by means of FTAs and endless negotiations over them, has kept our problems from ever getting solved. Even as huge numbers of Americans have died unnecessarily. This is clear as the nose on your face when you dig into the finer points of the connections between the General Agreement on Trade in Services and health insurance and other health care related issues. Healthcare/+ insurance/ + patients + medical staffing have become pawns - or maybe poker chips in a cynical international game.

If this became more widely known the media would be forced to cover it.

Few if any countries in the world have the homeless problems the US has.
The US is the worst country in the developed world by far to be poor in, with the possible exception of Mexico.
Dunno how much traveling you have done around the planet, especially the "3rd world"?
Non-working transients with drug (including alcohol) addictions to support have it infinitely better in the US than hard-working, honest, sincere clean-living people in most of the "3rd world".  Visiting many parts of Africa, Asia, and Oceania lowered my sympathy for many of the homeless in the US.  If they want to stay high on mind-altering substances all day, that is their choice. 

If the US is all as bad as @cdev and others paint it, why thousands of people try to break in every day?  Including a well-publicized army of >10K people working their way up from Central America as this is written.  Are they all fools?

Why do we try to overthrow governments in other countries that attempt to better the conditions for their people, including Honduras, quite recently. Why?

BTW, those people from Honduras would be welcomed with open arms if they coughed up around $500,000 USD per person as an 'investment' in a condo.  A representative of the very well connected K****** family was recently reported to be giving seminars in China on how to do exactly that.  WTF?
"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away."
 
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Offline maginnovision

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #264 on: October 23, 2018, 08:23:47 pm »
It depends a lot on where you are. Some places have cheap stores like that. Many poor urban neighborhoods do not, leaving people reliant on expensive corner stores.

Here’s a pertinent recent event from my adopted hometown, Baltimore: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/03/27/597304848/salvation-army-opens-first-grocery-store-ever-in-baltimore

Yea, I was in kansas. There are some places where it's not great to be broke and poor but at some point you should consider moving then. It's what I did.  Multiple times actually. If you don't give up you can improve your situation. If you do give up or wait for someone else to change things for you though you probably have a low chance of improving things. This isn't for people with legitimate disabilities but I'm fairly certain that's not the majority of poor people in america.
 

Offline cdev

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #265 on: October 23, 2018, 08:29:51 pm »
I have never in my entire life seen a poor person who had an expensive new phone. Nor an expensive new car.

many (poor people who should be risk-averse) who are barely surviving buy expensive HDHPs (which were designed for rich, healthy people only) (because otherwise the insurance costs more than they make in wages) and find that they are designed to strip them the poor of their coverage immediately when they get a serious illness (thats what the health insurance companies are experts at) So they pay faithfully for years until they get some diagnosis and then zap, the bills just push them out. Thats the way they are designed, their intent.

I do support a higher minimum wage because otherwise, peoples time gets all used up and they don't make any money. If they make a wage thats more substantial, sure, they don't have to work as many hours to make the same amount. Then its possible that they might be able to do something in that other time to get out of the rut, learn some new skill or get a better paying job.

Also, keep in mind that because of how austerity and also trade deals work, that minimum wage may become a great many peoples wage at some point. Including many engineers. (although getting their employers to actually pay it may be impossible as the wages might be paid overseas into overseas workers accounts, as was the case with the proposed $6.47/hr wage for the Malaysian engineer in the "Matter of i-corp" case.)

Here is the problem, young people's from around the world's parents now seem to be on the verge of paying so they can work. Sort of like internships in other fields, desperate people will have to work for almost nothing (well, actually, its possible US minimum wage, or maybe not, as it will be very hard to enforce in practice, because the money stays outside the country, and its disputed whether we even have the right to tell foreign staffing firms what to pay their workforce, who are likely talented young people just like our own. Desperate for some work experience. They are kept in a state of disempowerment - working for very little - for as much as several years - or maybe forever if the situation keeps getting worse. And it may, thanks to the technology we're creating.

... Paying for the experience.

The horrid experience..

The point I am getting at is that technology is changing the world in entirely new ways and we have to be aware that there are important debates we need to be having which are being suppressed.

This is being done to against all odds, (one would think that democracy would be seen as our way out, the democracy we have not had in a long time) But instead we're being so deluged with noise to put us and keep us in an ever deeper rut.  Common sense is all we need, that and truth. We are all in this together.

Now how many of those people have new phones and cars? Health insurance with high premiums and deductibles? There are other things you can't measure reliably too, steps taken to improve the situation, earnest efforts to keep some money around. Actual skills vs what is required near them. There is never a single reason which is why the individuals are generally considered to be at fault. I read an article today on cnn where Seattle raised the min wage to 15 but people actually only make 1-2% more due to cut hours. This is in a busy urban area. Nothing said about cost of living changes though.

Cost of living is not considered in setting wages under neoliberal ideology, its all based on the market, and supply and demand. Thats what we're headed for. So any explosion in labor saving technology (basically AI is functionally identical to workers who will work for almost nothing, just electrons) may be accompanied by huge falls in wages. This could happen even without the outsourcing and offshoring they will claim they "need" to do to 'restore profitability'. See where our greed takes us, if we tune out and fail to see how democracy is in danger globally in a way that hurts everybody?
« Last Edit: October 23, 2018, 10:31:30 pm by cdev »
"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away."
 
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Offline james_s

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #266 on: October 24, 2018, 01:20:49 am »
I have never in my entire life seen a poor person who had an expensive new phone. Nor an expensive new car.


I sure have, lots of them. That's not to say it's a leading cause of poverty or anything but I'm shocked you haven't known or even met at least a couple people who can barely pay the rent at the end of the month but always seem to have a top of the line smartphone and/or a nice ride.

Then there is a whole other group of people who would not normally be considered poor, they make a decent wage but if you look at their finances their house is mortgaged to the hilt and they are living far beyond their means and deep in debt.

Then there are the most visible poor, the homeless population. Of the ones you see, a large majority are suffering from mental illness and/or drug addiction. I see them every day walking between my bus stop and office.
 
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Offline james_s

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #267 on: October 24, 2018, 01:25:24 am »
Actually I used to be poor. We had stores where things were SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than the normal chain stores. They had limited selection but everything you'd need. Bread, eggs, milk, cheese, canned goods, fresh fruit and vegetables, cream, some other "luxury" food stuffs but mostly essentials. As for Seattle the article is likely based on the same research which I haven't read so I'm not going to try to say much more than what I read. actually it looks like mostly the same article but on cnn business rather than just cnn.

There's a place like that down in Shelton, I often stop there when I'm in the area. They have all kinds of stuff that is past the "best by" date, damaged packages, discontinued, etc. I shop there not because I'm poor but because I'm cheap and I don't care if the box of cake mix is squished or a bottle of BBQ sauce is a little past the best by date. They also have produce for typically less than half the price of a regular grocery store, I sometimes buy several pounds of apples for dehydrating. You can't tell they're less than perfect once they've been dried.
 

Offline tooki

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #268 on: October 24, 2018, 10:00:40 am »
It depends a lot on where you are. Some places have cheap stores like that. Many poor urban neighborhoods do not, leaving people reliant on expensive corner stores.

Here’s a pertinent recent event from my adopted hometown, Baltimore: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/03/27/597304848/salvation-army-opens-first-grocery-store-ever-in-baltimore

Yea, I was in kansas. There are some places where it's not great to be broke and poor but at some point you should consider moving then. It's what I did.  Multiple times actually. If you don't give up you can improve your situation. If you do give up or wait for someone else to change things for you though you probably have a low chance of improving things. This isn't for people with legitimate disabilities but I'm fairly certain that's not the majority of poor people in america.
(I lived in Kansas from age 3-5! :P)

The problem is that many of America’s poor simply don’t even have the means to move. :( It’s another of those things that perpetuates poverty. (A slightly related issue is the one of transportation to work. I read recently that good public transit is one of the reasons why socioeconomic mobility is now better in Europe than in USA: A person can take a job that’s farther away, but pays much better, even if they don’t have a car to commute with. This is a HUGE problem in USA, where poverty causes people to be unable to have reliable transportation, without which they can’t get or keep a better job. American public transit is largely so bad as to be irrelevant.)
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #269 on: October 24, 2018, 11:43:16 am »
I have never in my entire life seen a poor person who had an expensive new phone. Nor an expensive new car.
I sure have, lots of them. That's not to say it's a leading cause of poverty or anything but I'm shocked you haven't known or even met at least a couple people who can barely pay the rent at the end of the month but always seem to have a top of the line smartphone and/or a nice ride.

Those people aren't poor, they are just poor at money management.
 
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Offline sokoloff

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #270 on: October 24, 2018, 11:56:07 am »
I have never in my entire life seen a poor person who had an expensive new phone. Nor an expensive new car.
I sure have, lots of them. That's not to say it's a leading cause of poverty or anything but I'm shocked you haven't known or even met at least a couple people who can barely pay the rent at the end of the month but always seem to have a top of the line smartphone and/or a nice ride.
Those people aren't poor, they are just poor at money management.
If you have a total net worth below $0 (or hell, below $2K), you're poor in my book. If we use that definition, I see a lot of poor people with new phones, new cars, drinking $5 cups of hot water poured over beans, and regularly eating meals prepared for them.
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #271 on: October 24, 2018, 12:02:21 pm »
I have never in my entire life seen a poor person who had an expensive new phone. Nor an expensive new car.
I sure have, lots of them. That's not to say it's a leading cause of poverty or anything but I'm shocked you haven't known or even met at least a couple people who can barely pay the rent at the end of the month but always seem to have a top of the line smartphone and/or a nice ride.
Those people aren't poor, they are just poor at money management.
If you have a total net worth below $0 (or hell, below $2K), you're poor in my book. If we use that definition, I see a lot of poor people with new phones, new cars, drinking $5 cups of hot water poured over beans, and regularly eating meals prepared for them.

 :palm:

Those people aren't poor if they have a $1000 iPhone, a fancy car, and are eating smashed avo toast (aussies will know what I mean) and three cafe coffees every day. They are simply crap with management of their money and spend beyond their means.
Poor is having no money to begin with, not having money and blowing it all on lifestyle choices so you end up being forever in debt.
 

Offline IanMacdonald

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #272 on: October 24, 2018, 12:41:56 pm »
Those people aren't poor if they have a $1000 iPhone

You are talking two orders of magnitude more money to buy a house. The problem is that houses, like designer clothes, fetch silly prices. They aren't even worth what you have to pay for them.

As for drugs being self-medication for mental health problems, that might be right on the nail where teenagers and school is concerned. A major overhaul of that institution is needed.
 
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Offline cdev

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #273 on: October 24, 2018, 02:38:45 pm »
At my local chain drugstore they sell prepay smartphones which look just like top of the line cellphone brands.

Price, around $30. They look expensive but aren't.

Also, some cities have programs to give poor people prepay phones with a small number of calls, basically so they can be notified of appointments they need to keep. (also they can probably be tracked via GPS)

The cell phones are basic Android based cell phones.

As far as new cars, that is - just wrong.

Maintaining any car successfully (and keeping it out of the impound garage in any city) requires resources that poor people rarely if ever have.

Just simply renting a garage or parking space in many urban areas costs substantial sums of money.

(Insurance does too!)

Parking a car on a street and moving it when that is needed, requires knowledge of when streets are going to be cleaned and a daily attention to detail, as well as having immediate access to funds to bail a car out if its towed,  that is guaranteed to trip up those who don't have a stable life situation.
« Last Edit: October 24, 2018, 02:42:59 pm by cdev »
"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away."
 
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Online tom66

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Re: FranLab is getting evicted
« Reply #274 on: October 24, 2018, 03:09:34 pm »
I sure have, lots of them. That's not to say it's a leading cause of poverty or anything but I'm shocked you haven't known or even met at least a couple people who can barely pay the rent at the end of the month but always seem to have a top of the line smartphone and/or a nice ride.

Then there is a whole other group of people who would not normally be considered poor, they make a decent wage but if you look at their finances their house is mortgaged to the hilt and they are living far beyond their means and deep in debt.

It's very easy to demonise people for living beyond their means,  but you don't know their financial situation.

In the UK, the average salary is £27,000,  but the average house is over £250,000, so only high earners or lucky well-paid professional couples can buy them.  Even a basic two-bedroom flat in the SE of England,  where many well paying jobs are located,  will cost your north of £200k.

The only option you have if you ever want to escape the cycle of renting is to mortgage a house for 90% of its value (and finding £30,000 to put down, once agents fees and moving costs are accounted for) and hope that house prices don't crash because if they do,  you will be trapped in negative equity for the next twenty years, unable to move out of the house you now despise.

So we've built a society that essentially continues propping up house prices and rents to support those who own,  because we're so afraid of the damage this could cause,  but this is just at the expense of everyone else who don't own homes.  This problem is unsolvable without upsetting a substantial portion of the population, namely the ones who tend to vote (older generations, baby boomers typically.)

When you see people with the latest iPhone or drinking coffee from Starbucks,  perhaps that's their escape from their financial destitution.  At the end of the day, I really doubt £40 a month makes much difference when your paycheque is ~20% more than your rent every month.    They are never going to be able to afford to  buy a home.   And a brand new car - who knows how they're paying for that?  But you can finance cars for under £100 per month in the UK,  that can be less than an unexpected mechanical bill on a used car.  What if you don't have the £5k to buy a decent used car up front, anyway?  You end up trapped in a loop on credit after credit.
« Last Edit: October 24, 2018, 03:14:20 pm by tom66 »
 
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