Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PP who said “people find themselves there because of poor life choices” wins for saying the most ignorant, racist thing I could think of for this thread. Ignorant f*ck.

That's ridiculous! Tons of people make poor life choices and it has nothing to do with race.

Tell me with the generational racial disparities in wealth that it has nothing to do with race.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianthompson1/2018/02/18/the-racial-wealth-gap-addressing-americas-most-pressing-epidemic/

I am from an affluent european country. Mostly white and made up of upper middle and lower class. Race is NOT the determining factor.
I am on team mental illness as the main reason for true poverty.

Can you acknowledge both that the US is different, that those immigrants and emigrants in your country are in a very different position for saving and building wealth,and that there isn’t *one* answer? Why do you say it has nothing to do with race in the face of evidence?

What about the unpopular truth of race an iq?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PP who said “people find themselves there because of poor life choices” wins for saying the most ignorant, racist thing I could think of for this thread. Ignorant f*ck.

That's ridiculous! Tons of people make poor life choices and it has nothing to do with race.

PP, you're thinking backwards. Declaring that poverty is "because of poor life choices", along with the fact that income and assets are highly correlated with race, implicitly declares that racial groups can be characterized by their "poor life choices". The realities are so much more complicated. One simple example: Asians are far less likely than people of other races to enter the workforce without a college degree. Whites are about twice as likely and blacks and Hispanics are about 2.5 times as likely. If a young black or Hispanic adult enters the workforce without the advantage of a college (or advanced) degree, is that a good choice or a poor choice? Regardless, that decision sets the starting point for that person's working life. But also, the white person who enters the workforce without a college degree will ALREADY be paid a higher wage than the black or Hispanic person.

Other pps have mentioned the effect of historical policies on generational assets. White college educated families are more than three times as likely as black college educated families to receive inherited assets worth more than $10K (41% of whites, 13% of blacks). In fact, the AVERAGE inheritance received by those 41% of college educated white families is $150K, while the average inheritance of those 13% of black families is $40K.

So, taking 100 college educated white families and 100 college educated black families, the ration of the intergenerational transfer of wealth is $6.150M to $.520M. Or, for every dollar received by the black families, $11 are received by the white families. The receiving generation doesn't have to do ANYTHING to merit this transfer, well, other than to avoid seriously pissing off their parents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PP who said “people find themselves there because of poor life choices” wins for saying the most ignorant, racist thing I could think of for this thread. Ignorant f*ck.

That's ridiculous! Tons of people make poor life choices and it has nothing to do with race.

Tell me with the generational racial disparities in wealth that it has nothing to do with race.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianthompson1/2018/02/18/the-racial-wealth-gap-addressing-americas-most-pressing-epidemic/

I am from an affluent european country. Mostly white and made up of upper middle and lower class. Race is NOT the determining factor.
I am on team mental illness as the main reason for true poverty.

What the f does that have to do with the US?

NP: you seem to have a mental illness.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PP who said “people find themselves there because of poor life choices” wins for saying the most ignorant, racist thing I could think of for this thread. Ignorant f*ck.

That's ridiculous! Tons of people make poor life choices and it has nothing to do with race.

Tell me with the generational racial disparities in wealth that it has nothing to do with race.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianthompson1/2018/02/18/the-racial-wealth-gap-addressing-americas-most-pressing-epidemic/

I am from an affluent european country. Mostly white and made up of upper middle and lower class. Race is NOT the determining factor.
I am on team mental illness as the main reason for true poverty.

Can you acknowledge both that the US is different, that those immigrants and emigrants in your country are in a very different position for saving and building wealth,and that there isn’t *one* answer? Why do you say it has nothing to do with race in the face of evidence?

Anonymous wrote:I'm considered lower middle class by DCUM standards (I'm a teacher, husband works in IT) and we have been able to buy a house, have a child in preschool and pay down my student loans (and pay off our cars) and we built up an emergency fund. But in order to make this happen we have sacrificed a lot of spending. We're also lucky to have good health insurance because we had an unexpected medical emergency a few years ago and that could have wiped out our savings but we were lucky to have good health insurance

Lower middle class by DCUM standards (probably what, 80-115k) is by no means actually low income. I’m glad you’re doing well enough and can save.

I'm considered lower middle class by DCUM standards (I'm a teacher, husband works in IT) and we have been able to buy a house, have a child in preschool and pay down my student loans (and pay off our cars) and we built up an emergency fund. But in order to make this happen we have sacrificed a lot of spending. We're also lucky to have good health insurance because we had an unexpected medical emergency a few years ago and that could have wiped out our savings but we were lucky to have good health insurance

no one is more frugal than the poor and working class.
No Starbucks
No organic food
Live in a crummy apartment you hate
Live with adult family members to save money
Live in a neighborhood that you don’t feel safe in to save money
Work an extra job
Have your kids work jobs
Buy expired food to save money
Buy clothes at goodwill
Pool family resources together to help with emergencies
Don’t buy your kids books or art supplies or sports equipment
Etc
Etc

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t pay for your own graduate education, live further out and commute, send kids to public school, don’t eat at restaurants, have fewer kids...there are many ways to live within your means and save. Most don't.

There you go, OP! All those paycheck-to-paycheck types you are talking about could save tons of they just sent their kids to public school.

Don't forget -- they just need to commute longer!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I didn't read through the whole thread because after a few pages I see you are getting alot of shade and shaming on this. Just want to say I agree with you. These people do not know what its like to be poor or live on a razors edge. Its very self righteous of them. Yes, there are people who are poor and make bad financial decisions. And yes, they could cut out some luxuries for sure. But cutting out a starbucks a couple times a week is not going to give you 6 months of living expenses. Get a grip people! Also, when you are that on the edge, you are often one step away from crisis and any savings you have get eaten up on a regular basis. ie. you manage to scrimp together $1000 in savings. Yay. Then you have a medical problem and need some testing done that's only partially covered by your insurance, your car breaks down or needs regular maintenance, etc. etc.

I agree with you. Privileged people can be completely tone deaf and simply have no frame of reference to understand. Not everyone can just go get a loan to cover their expenses like our supreme dumbass commerce secretary Wilbur Ross suggests

This sort of thinking right here is why people can't build emergency funds. No, cutting out Starbucks won't give you 6 months of emergency savings overnight, but keep doing it and it sure will. And you know what happens when you start consciously thinking about every $1-$2 expense like Starbucks? You end up cutting other little things here and there. And then over time, you have savings.

And then you have a medical emergency that cuts out that savings and guess what, you start over! You do the same thing you did before to scrimp that $1000 together until you need $1000 for the next emergency. But you don't never try to save to begin with because you might have that emergency one day that will use up the savings.

1000x this.

No. You clearly have no understanding of what it means to be low income. It's not about Starbucks.

Anonymous wrote:Don’t pay for your own graduate education, live further out and commute, send kids to public school, don’t eat at restaurants, have fewer kids...there are many ways to live within your means and save. Most don't.

There you go, OP! All those paycheck-to-paycheck types you are talking about could save tons of they just sent their kids to public school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PP who said “people find themselves there because of poor life choices” wins for saying the most ignorant, racist thing I could think of for this thread. Ignorant f*ck.

That's ridiculous! Tons of people make poor life choices and it has nothing to do with race.

Tell me with the generational racial disparities in wealth that it has nothing to do with race.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianthompson1/2018/02/18/the-racial-wealth-gap-addressing-americas-most-pressing-epidemic/

I am from an affluent european country. Mostly white and made up of upper middle and lower class. Race is NOT the determining factor.
I am on team mental illness as the main reason for true poverty.

What the f does that have to do with the US?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I didn't read through the whole thread because after a few pages I see you are getting alot of shade and shaming on this. Just want to say I agree with you. These people do not know what its like to be poor or live on a razors edge. Its very self righteous of them. Yes, there are people who are poor and make bad financial decisions. And yes, they could cut out some luxuries for sure. But cutting out a starbucks a couple times a week is not going to give you 6 months of living expenses. Get a grip people! Also, when you are that on the edge, you are often one step away from crisis and any savings you have get eaten up on a regular basis. ie. you manage to scrimp together $1000 in savings. Yay. Then you have a medical problem and need some testing done that's only partially covered by your insurance, your car breaks down or needs regular maintenance, etc. etc.

I agree with you. Privileged people can be completely tone deaf and simply have no frame of reference to understand. Not everyone can just go get a loan to cover their expenses like our supreme dumbass commerce secretary Wilbur Ross suggests

This sort of thinking right here is why people can't build emergency funds. No, cutting out Starbucks won't give you 6 months of emergency savings overnight, but keep doing it and it sure will. And you know what happens when you start consciously thinking about every $1-$2 expense like Starbucks? You end up cutting other little things here and there. And then over time, you have savings.

And then you have a medical emergency that cuts out that savings and guess what, you start over! You do the same thing you did before to scrimp that $1000 together until you need $1000 for the next emergency. But you don't never try to save to begin with because you might have that emergency one day that will use up the savings.

1000x this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PP who said “people find themselves there because of poor life choices” wins for saying the most ignorant, racist thing I could think of for this thread. Ignorant f*ck.

That's ridiculous! Tons of people make poor life choices and it has nothing to do with race.

Tell me with the generational racial disparities in wealth that it has nothing to do with race.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianthompson1/2018/02/18/the-racial-wealth-gap-addressing-americas-most-pressing-epidemic/

I am from an affluent european country. Mostly white and made up of upper middle and lower class. Race is NOT the determining factor.
I am on team mental illness as the main reason for true poverty.

I think it's true that the gains in our economy have gone to the rich and that needs to be rectified in a major way

Also it's true that many people live above their means and make poor decisions, like young people feeling entitled to 1br apartments in Logan circle with their first job

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The privilege from some of these posters is astonishing. Some of you literally have NO IDEA that people are not struggling because they are getting their nails or hair done or buying Starbucks every day, but because basic costs like housing and healthcare have gone up greatly and incomes haven't followed.

Or perhaps it's because these costs have increased, incomes have not followed, and yet people think they "deserve" to live as before. If your income is not keeping up with your basic costs, you reduce those costs or you hustle more.

Of course there are exceptions; it's not that simple for people with hundreds of thousands in medical bills because they have a horrible disease, etc., or for the 25 year old widow with 3 kids who suddenly lost her husband in a car crash. But we're talking in generalizations here and these extenuating circumstances are not what are keeping most people from getting ahead.

Saving is supposed to be hard. No one is saying it's easy. But hard doesn't equal impossible.

Where has that wealth gone? Where have the economic gains gone? Because the economy has improved on the macro sense faster and on a different scale than wages.

Those gains have gone to the rich, and that includes everyone posting in this thread.