Reply to I'm curious: is anyone on this forum actually poor?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We're dirt poor for the area. DH and I are both PhD students living on stipends. I spend a lot of time on the internet because I need it for school. Our kid goes to Arlington Science Focus (it's a wonderful public school... I highly recommend it!). We live in a tiny, tiny apartment and cook every night. We never go out to eat.

We schedule our school stuff around her class schedule so that we don't have to pay for after-school care. 
[/quote]

12:30 here -[b] ok, you're poor, I guess - but people that I think of as poor aren't PhD students.  They're lucky if they graduated from high school.  [/b]Does anyone else see what I mean here?[/quote]

But that's stereotyping. Poverty is $11,600 for a single person, $21,000 for family. That being said, in DC I would argue the poverty level is much higher than that probably (median income is $58,000 in DC compared to national $40,000). Poverty in rural Kansas is different than poverty in NYC or DC. Not everyone in povety is uneducated.[/quote]

[b]Of course not everyone in poverty is uneducated.  That's not what I meant.[/b]  But when I think of true poverty, I think of people working three jobs to keep food on the table and keep their family warm, etc, not studying for a PhD.  Not that I think the PhD poster isn't struggling with money.  Not sure why no one is seeing what I mean by that.  [/quote]

Maybe because you out and out said *Poor People are lucky to have graduated from HS*.   I found your meaning to be pretty clear.  [/quote]

Forget it, you don't see what I mean. I don't think of people studying for PhD's as poor. Currently low income, sure. When I think poor I think begging on the street, sleeping in a shelter, etc. Semantics to some, I guess.[/quote]

I know what you mean, PP.  I teach ESOL and most of my students and their families are poor - i.e. sharing a house with 2-3 families, not having a home phone, working at McDonald's.  Hard workers, yes, but mostly uneducated and it will be hard for them to ever be anything other than poor.  The PhD poster is probably "temporarily" poor - I assume that after she and her husband get their PhDs, they will make more money and will someday by a house or condo and will be able to go out to eat.  That said, i don't think any of my students are on DCUM.   :-o[/quote]

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