The black man's motivational thread (only positive sh!t, no whining or excuses)
- Thread starter Skrilla
- Start date
TRAP AMERICAN TV
TRAP GOLD
MajorVitaman
Superstar
Happy Juneteenth brehs, let this day motivate you on your mission
Dominate the day!
Dominate the day!
Bump
This could be all of us.
The High Cost of Being Poor
> > By Barbara Ehrenreich,
> > AlterNet Posted on July 21, 2006,
> > Printed on July 24,2006
> > The High Cost of Being Poor
> >
> > 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:
> >
> > * 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.
> >
> > * 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.
> >
> > * 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.
> >
> > * Poorer people pay an average of one percentage point
> > more in mortgage interest.
> >
> > * 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.
> >
> > * 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.
> >
> > 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. 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.
> >
> > Then there was the problem of sustenance. I had gone
> > into the project imagining myself preparing vast
> > quantities of cheap, nutritious soups and stews, which
> > I would freeze and heat for dinner each day. But
> > surprise: I didn't have the proverbial pot to pee in,
> > not to mention spices or Tupperware. A scouting trip to
> > K-Mart established that it would take about a $40
> > capital investment to get my kitchenette up to speed
> > for the low-wage way of life.
> >
> > The food situation got only more challenging when I,
> > too, found myself living in a motel. Lacking a fridge
> > and microwave, all my food had to come from the nearest
> > convenience store (hardboiled eggs and banana for
> > breakfast) or, for the big meal of the day, Wendy's or
> > KFC. I have no nutritional complaints; after all, there
> > is a veggie, or flecks of one, in Wendy's broccoli and
> > cheese baked potato. The problem was financial. A
> > double cheeseburger and fries is lot more expensive
> > than that hypothetical homemade lentil stew.
> >
> > There are other tolls along the road well-traveled by
> > the working poor. If your credit is lousy, which it is
> > likely to be, you'll pay a higher deposit for a phone.
> > If you don't have health insurance, you may end taking
> > that feverish child to an emergency room, and please
> > don't think of ER's as socialized medicine for the
> > poor. The average cost of a visit is over $1,000, which
> > is over ten times more than what a clinic pediatrician
> > would charge. Or you neglect that hypertension,
> > diabetes or mystery lump until you end up with a
> > $100,000 problem on your hands.
> >
> > So let's have a little less talk about how the poor
> > should learn to manage their money, and a little more
> > attention to all the ways that money is being
> > systematically siphoned off. Yes, certain kinds of
> > advice would be helpful: skip the pay-day loans and
> > rent-to-pay furniture, for example. But we need laws in
> > more states to stop predatory practices like $50
> > charges for check cashing. Also, think what some
> > microcredit could do to move families from motels and
> > shelters to apartments. And did I mention a living
> > wage?
> >
> > If you're rich, you might want to stay that way. It's a
> > whole lot cheaper than being poor.
> > By Barbara Ehrenreich,
> > AlterNet Posted on July 21, 2006,
> > Printed on July 24,2006
> > The High Cost of Being Poor
> >
> > 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:
> >
> > * 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.
> >
> > * 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.
> >
> > * 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.
> >
> > * Poorer people pay an average of one percentage point
> > more in mortgage interest.
> >
> > * 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.
> >
> > * 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.
> >
> > 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. 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.
> >
> > Then there was the problem of sustenance. I had gone
> > into the project imagining myself preparing vast
> > quantities of cheap, nutritious soups and stews, which
> > I would freeze and heat for dinner each day. But
> > surprise: I didn't have the proverbial pot to pee in,
> > not to mention spices or Tupperware. A scouting trip to
> > K-Mart established that it would take about a $40
> > capital investment to get my kitchenette up to speed
> > for the low-wage way of life.
> >
> > The food situation got only more challenging when I,
> > too, found myself living in a motel. Lacking a fridge
> > and microwave, all my food had to come from the nearest
> > convenience store (hardboiled eggs and banana for
> > breakfast) or, for the big meal of the day, Wendy's or
> > KFC. I have no nutritional complaints; after all, there
> > is a veggie, or flecks of one, in Wendy's broccoli and
> > cheese baked potato. The problem was financial. A
> > double cheeseburger and fries is lot more expensive
> > than that hypothetical homemade lentil stew.
> >
> > There are other tolls along the road well-traveled by
> > the working poor. If your credit is lousy, which it is
> > likely to be, you'll pay a higher deposit for a phone.
> > If you don't have health insurance, you may end taking
> > that feverish child to an emergency room, and please
> > don't think of ER's as socialized medicine for the
> > poor. The average cost of a visit is over $1,000, which
> > is over ten times more than what a clinic pediatrician
> > would charge. Or you neglect that hypertension,
> > diabetes or mystery lump until you end up with a
> > $100,000 problem on your hands.
> >
> > So let's have a little less talk about how the poor
> > should learn to manage their money, and a little more
> > attention to all the ways that money is being
> > systematically siphoned off. Yes, certain kinds of
> > advice would be helpful: skip the pay-day loans and
> > rent-to-pay furniture, for example. But we need laws in
> > more states to stop predatory practices like $50
> > charges for check cashing. Also, think what some
> > microcredit could do to move families from motels and
> > shelters to apartments. And did I mention a living
> > wage?
> >
> > If you're rich, you might want to stay that way. It's a
> > whole lot cheaper than being poor.
