Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First, nowhere in the article does it say she actually bought them. It says she had $58 and tried them on and loved them. Doesn't say she bought them.

Second, I read somewhere a year or so ago (and can vouch for this from personal experience) that poor people often spend money on frivolous stuff because they're so far in the hole that it seems impossible to get out. The $10 on McDonald's isn't going to pay the $200 light bill anyway, so might as well enjoy something in life, even if it's just dinner at a fast food place. If they save all their extra $5 bills, it's going to take a really long time to add up to anything substantial, whereas spending that $5 now, brings some temporary happiness.

I agree that saving is always better than spending on something you don't need (perhaps she could have, or even did, buy those shorts cheaper on eBay or poshmark, but went to the store to try them on), but it took me a long time to learn that.

There's a picture of them wearing the shorts. It doesn't look like a Lululemon store.

Anonymous wrote:First, nowhere in the article does it say she actually bought them. It says she had $58 and tried them on and loved them. Doesn't say she bought them.

Second, I read somewhere a year or so ago (and can vouch for this from personal experience) that poor people often spend money on frivolous stuff because they're so far in the hole that it seems impossible to get out. The $10 on McDonald's isn't going to pay the $200 light bill anyway, so might as well enjoy something in life, even if it's just dinner at a fast food place. If they save all their extra $5 bills, it's going to take a really long time to add up to anything substantial, whereas spending that $5 now, brings some temporary happiness.

I agree that saving is always better than spending on something you don't need (perhaps she could have, or even did, buy those shorts cheaper on eBay or poshmark, but went to the store to try them on), but it took me a long time to learn that.

Anonymous wrote:My friend's husband was hospitalized, she was going broke ... we did fundraisers to help her and her 3 children.... she would drive 1 hour out of this area to get her hair cut because every time she got her hair cut she would run into somebody she knew and they would shame her for spending money "on herself".

Anonymous wrote:Read this. by T McMillan Cottam.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/why-do-poor-people-waste-money-on-luxury-goods

I do not know how much my mother spent on her camel colored cape or knee-high boots but I know that whatever she paid it returned in hard-to-measure dividends. How do you put a price on the double-take of a clerk at the welfare office who decides you might not be like those other trifling women in the waiting room and provides an extra bit of information about completing a form that you would not have known to ask about? What is the retail value of a school principal who defers a bit more to your child because your mother’s presentation of self signals that she might unleash the bureaucratic savvy of middle class parents to advocate for her child? I don’t know the price of these critical engagements with organizations and gatekeepers relative to our poverty when I was growing up. But, I am living proof of its investment yield.

Why do poor people make stupid, illogical decisions to buy status symbols? For the same reason all but only the most wealthy buy status symbols, I suppose. We want to belong. And, not just for the psychic rewards, but belonging to one group at the right time can mean the difference between unemployment and employment, a good job as opposed to a bad job, housing or a shelter, and so on.