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   XPost: alt.conspiracy.new-world-order, alt.america, alt.conspira   
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   XPost: us.politics   
   From: vandar69@yahoo.com   
      
   BDK wrote:   
      
   > In article , vandar69@yahoo.com   
   > says...   
   >   
   >>oO wrote:   
   >>   
   >>>The High Cost of Being Poor   
   >>>   
   >>>By Barbara Ehrenreich, AlterNet. Posted July 21, 2006.   
   >>>   
   >>>From food prices to auto insurance, when did poverty get so expensive?   
   >>>   
   >>>There are people, concentrated in the Hamptons and Beverly Hills, who still   
   >>>confuse poverty with the simple life. No cable TV, no altercations with the   
   >>>maid, no summer home maintenance issues -- just the basics like family,   
   >>>sunsets and walks in the park. What they don't know is that it's expensive   
   >>>to be poor.   
   >>>   
   >>>In fact, you, the reader of middling income, could probably not afford it. A   
   >>>new study from the Brookings Institute documents the "ghetto tax," or higher   
   >>>cost of living in low-income urban neighborhoods. It comes at you from every   
   >>>direction, from food prices to auto insurance. A few examples from this   
   >>>study, by Matt Fellowes, that covered 12 American cities:   
   >>>   
   >>>   
   >>>  a.. Poor people are less likely to have bank accounts, which can be   
   >>>expensive for those with low balances, and so they tend to cash their pay   
   >>>checks at check-cashing businesses, which in the cities surveyed, charged $5   
   >>>to $50 for a $500 check.   
   >>   
   >>If they're poor, they don't have $500 checks to cash.   
   >   
   >   
   > Vandy, do you ever go to the grocery store? If you did, you wouldn't say   
   > that.   
      
   Sometimes I do.   
      
   >>>  b.. Nationwide, low-income car buyers, defined as people earning less than   
   >>>$30,000 a year, pay two percentage points more for a car loan than more   
   >>>affluent buyers.   
   >>   
   >>Poor people don't buy new cars. They buy jinkers from "old man Joe" down   
   >>the street for $250   
   >   
   >   
   > You're out of it here too, I've worked with a lot of people who qualify   
   > as poor in every way, and they buy cars, for the most part from places   
   > that sell them iffy cars for a higher than average interest rate.   
      
   As for the economic definition of "poor", yeah, they may be.   
   I don't view someone who owns a home and/or new car as poor. Someone   
   able to maintain payments on either one of those needs to learn how to   
   better manage their money to escape the "poor" category.   
      
   >>>  c.. Low-income drivers pay more for car insurance. In New York, Baltimore   
   >>>and Hartford, they pay an average $400 more a year to insure the exact same   
   >>>car and driver risk than wealthier drivers.   
   >>   
   >>Bullshit. My auto insurance company has no clue whatsoever how much   
   >>money I make. It's none of their business and they don't have a right to   
   >>know.   
   >   
   >   
   > Vandy, if they know your address, they have a good idea of what you have   
   > to make to live there, and they do base the rates on it, or do it if the   
   > law allows them to.   
      
   They can only get an idea of what someone would need to make to live   
   here, which can be nowhere near what they actually make.   
      
   >>>  d.. Poorer people pay an average of one percentage point more in mortgage   
   >>>interest.   
   >>   
   >>Poor people don't have mortgages.   
   >   
   >   
   > Well, the poorest don't, but many do, and they pay higher interest rates   
   > than people with better credit scores.   
      
   There are many poor people with excellent credit scores.   
   There are many wealthy people with horrible credit scores.   
      
   >>>  e.. They are more likely to buy their furniture and appliances through   
   >>>pricey rent-to-own businesses. In Wisconsin, the study reports, a $200   
   >>>rent-to-own TV set can cost $700 with the interest included.   
   >>   
   >>Where does this guy get this shit from? Poor people don't buy their   
   >>furniture and appliances through rent-to-own stores, they buy it (or   
   >>have it given to them) from someone in the next building or the   
   >>occassional yard sale.   
   >   
   >   
   > Where do you get this shit from Vandar?   
      
   Experience.   
      
   > I know someone who makes a great   
   > living selling stuff to poor people from his chain of rent to own   
   > stores. The addresses he delivers to every day but Sunday read like a   
   > list of every bad neighborhood in the area.   
      
   Those are poor people who are content to remain that way. They are a   
   useless topic.   
      
   >>>  f.. They are less likely to have access to large supermarkets and hence to   
   >>>rely on the far more expensive, and lower quality offerings, of small   
   >>>grocery and convenience stores.   
   >>   
   >>What? Less likely to have access to large supermarkets!?   
   >>Do the automatic doors not open for the poor?   
   >   
   >   
   > Vandy, a lot of them don't have access to cars at will, and the only   
   > places within walking distance get huge prices for a lot of stuff. In   
   > this area, there are places over 4 miles away from any kind of   
   > supermarket. A long walk there and back.   
      
   Again, poor people who don't make the necessary sacrifices to escape   
   being poor.   
   My town has a discount livery service for the elderly and low income   
   families.   
      
   >>>I didn't live in any ghettoes when I worked on Nickle and Dimed --a trailer   
   >>>park, yes, but no ghetto -- and on my average wage of $7 an hour, or about   
   >>>$14,400 a year, I wasn't in the market for furniture, a house or a car.   
   >>   
   >>Which means the above analysis is crap.   
   >   
   >   
   > No, it's pretty accurate, actually.   
      
   The author stated that poor people "do this and that", but then says   
   that when she was poor, she didn't do any of it.   
   That's probably why she's no longer poor.   
      
   >>>But   
   >>>the high cost of poverty was brought home to me within a few days of my   
   >>>entry into the low-wage life, when, slipping into social-worker mode, I   
   >>>chastised a co-worker for living in a motel room when it would be so much   
   >>>cheaper to rent an apartment. Her response: Where would she get the first   
   >>>month's rent and security deposit it takes to pin down an apartment? The   
   >>>lack of that amount of capital -- probably well over $1,000 -- condemned her   
   >>>to paying $40 a night at the Day's Inn.   
   >>   
   >>There are myriad places to get the initial capital. Tell her to get off   
   >>her ass and find it.   
   >   
   >   
   > In some ways it is, but a lot of people don't know how to ge it. The   
   > stuff people don't know is amazing, as your post shows.   
      
   Ignorance abounds, as you demonstrate. I was once considered poor, now   
   I'm not.   
   Those that claim they don't know how to get it are lying to support   
   either their laziness or contentment.   
      
   >>>Then there was the problem of sustenance. I had gone into the project   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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