Reply to America is in an economic tailspin. Why does life feel so normal?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I will add to my comment above that "poverty is not a character flew".

All you people with bootstraps to spare, who were gifted bootstraps from your parents, who don't know anyone without bootstraps and boots . . . you have obviously never been on public assistance or known anyone who has.

No one gets public assistance for fun. It's not easy. Cash welfare is not really a thing anymore since Clinton passed welfare reform.  No one is rolling up to the food pantry in their luxury SUV for fun, because they had an extra hour in their day, because they love eating cheap processed food, because they would rather be tsk tsk'ed by some "nice" Christian ladies than spend $10 at Safeway. if you think someone needs to dress in rags and take the bus an hour to beg for some Aldi food the people donating wouldn't feed their own families and some dollar store toys and school suppliers, you are not a kind person and should find a different place to volunteer.

Waiting lists for Section 8 housing are long.  
Applications to get free cable or get help with your heating bills are long and require cooperation from lazy ass landlords and may require you to jump through hoops to prove you are worthy.  
The process to get and keep SNAP or WIC is not easy and if you do have WIC, you may have to endure the humiliation of your case worker telling you that according to her chart your baby is too fat for the whole milk your pediatrician recommends and you will only get 2%.  Or generic formula that makes your baby spit up. God forbid you have a SNAP EBT card and you buy something the Karen behind you in line doesn't think is necessary.  God forbid poor people have some stability or even worse - joy in their lives like nice nails that their sister the nail tech did on her day off to practice a new technique or a reliable car borrowed from a neighbor or phone that works, a gift from your boss so he can reach you.

Being poor sucked before Covid and will sucks more now. 
Your life seems normal because you don't know any poor people. The people in your life who are silently suffering right now have the credit to keep up appearances - at least for a while.  You may find out in 6-12 months that some people were closer to the edge than you imagined.  You might find out in 10-30 years when people you know don't have money to pay for their kids' college or to retire.

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This is a narrative that’s been formed over the years and I used to buy into it.

Now we live in Alexandria City where welfare is a way of life for generations. Literally grandma got the public housing and now her grandkids and great grand Kids live with her and her own kids live in the same complex with their children and grand children

Did you know that public housing doesn’t kick you out even when a household has an income of over $100K ?

The base salary of public housing plus snap plus child care subsidies plus medical care subsidies  often is close to $60K or more. So imagine if all your basic needs are met and any income you make is now disposable. You save nothing because if you did than you would not have money for eating out, getting your hair and nails done, upgrading your phone, buying designer clothes and so on

That’s what really, truly happens. Whatever inconvenience it takes to maintain that standard set of subsidies that keeps all basic needs met is totally worth it.[/quote]

I'm not saying whether this is true or not, but we're living in an economic melt down. If they're spending money on eating out, getting their hair and nails done, upgrading their phones and buying clothes then they're doing their part to keep the economy afloat. That's what we need right now. Businesses are DESPERATE for this kind of spending. Please don't encourage people to save money now -- we need people to spend if we want to survive this downturn.[/quote]

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