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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The question was why do people of privilege find it so hard to understand how hard it is to save, and this thread demonstrated this perfectly.

Being working poor is really hard. It is time consuming in a way that many people don't seem to understand. Taking a low-wage hourly job or two puts you at the mercy of someone else making a schedule, with a week's notice. Or maybe you will only get 3 shifts when you were counting on 5 that week. Then you have to find child care for a random schedule, which is why people frequently ask family to help, or you have to pay a sitter, who may make a bit less than you do. Because you are hourly, you don't have health insurance, or a way to budget because random hours.

This leads to the need for social services, whether that be reduced lunches, medical care, or an unemployment check because the factory closed and half the town is out of work too.

It takes time to figure out how to get medical care, and time to figure out how to fill out forms to get social services. It is complicated and confusing.  Being poor has long-term impacts, like not knowing how to apply for college or the aid that they can likely receive because of a low family income, or skipping the health insurance options because that does cost extra, and maybe it's worth taking the risk of not having it.

This was my childhood, followed by me putting myself through college (I arranged my classes at a big ten school around my work schedule for one of my jobs and not the other way around. I ate an apple around 3p, and then ate whatever pizza was messed up at the restaurant that night) Saving just wasn't an option. There was nothing to save.

My husband is furloughed, and I run a consulting firm. We do have savings, and are fine. But I won't be the one scolding Americans who are $600 away from catastrophe at any moment.

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Np:  but, having children and those associated costs can be helped and for those of us who took the practical route and waited until we could afford them, it is hard to rationalize why others couldn’t do the same.  That is, absolutely, something that can be delayed.  Whether people want to admit it or not, children are a luxury.

I’ve walked the walk - mid 20s, laid off, no money, no food and when I recovered from that, I went back to school at night (6-10pm Mon-Thurs, Sat morning classes) after working 40+ hrs Mon-Fri, paid for it out of my earnings (early 2000s), sacrificed any sort of life for years to get an Accounting degree, so my sympathy for others not willing to make sacrifices for the big picture, is limited.   [/quote]

Look, again, you're not seeing your privilege.  You seem to be talking to other people in exactly your same socioeconomic group.  What am I supposed to tell my son's beloved daycare teacher who grew up in the DC projects, with likely terrible education and access to none of the things that enabled me to stay in my socioeconomic class?  Never have kids?   [/quote]

PP: I didn’t say I was without privilege but as an adult, I have been hungry, have not known how I was going to pay rent, didn’t know how I was going to get to work and never want to feel that way again, so made changes to put me on the path to be where I am now.  If you can’t afford to feed, clothe and shelter a child(ren), then no, you shouldn’t have them.  How is that fair to those children to grow up in dire circumstances only to repeat it themselves.  [/quote]

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