I know the general definition of poverty is around the utter basics - food and shelter - but it goes far beyond that. If you have to choose between buying a washing machine or sending your kids to a tutor. If you have to choose between buying everything as individual unit at the grocery store or cheaper-in-bulk goods from a big box store. If you have to choose between seeing the doctor now or wait and see if the issue goes away. If you have to choose between sending your kids to college or sending them off to work at 18. Decisions small and large, accumulate and create a much bigger impact than most people imagine. Each of those have an opportunity cost that could make their life a little better in the short run or a frustration in the short run that can help them towards a better life in the long run. Now imagine having to make these decisions consistently for two decades until you can see the return on it - like say your kids actually getting a better job or you becoming an entrepreneur or finding a career ...etc.
MisterBastahrd|2 years ago
You just described the difference between lower-middle and middle class.
Poverty is when you have to quit your job yet again because your CCMS paperwork got screwed up and the daycare won't take your kid after school.
Poverty is when you have to make visits to the food bank on a regular basis for commodities because the price of food is outstripping what EBT is offering.
Poverty is when you don't have a strong attachment to any of your physical possessions even if you've worked long and hard for them because one medical problem could make it impossible for you to afford your rent, so you might as well not become too attached to anything that you'll eventually lose.
Poverty is when you either keep your cash on you at all times or you pay a 3% fee to a debit card company to keep preloading a prepaid card because the banks don't think you're creditworthy enough to open an account.
Poverty is when you make stupid decisions with money when you have it because there are just so many occasions when you don't.
Poverty is getting CPS visits because even though you put your kid in the best clothes that you could afford, some teacher decided that today was the day she was going to white knight your child away from you.
Poverty is being ashamed to be dragged through a book fair only to be the only child to not purchase anything because you don't dare ask your momma for money given how much she struggles.
Poverty is when you gut through toothaches and abscesses because you don't have dental insurance and nobody does that work for free.
That's poverty.
What you described is an inconvenienced life.
erellsworth|2 years ago
One could just as easily compare your poverty with that of people in the poorest places in the world.
Oh, your kids get to go to school? Our kids spend their days digging through rubbish heaps. Oh your kid was taken away by CPS? Our kid died from inhaling toxic fumes from melting down the old computer parts they found digging through the rubbish heaps. Oh, you have a debit card fee? We're don't even have ATMs, or banks.
Poverty is a spectrum. Just because X is poorer than Y doesn't mean Y isn't also poor.
1: https://youtu.be/26ZDB9h7BLY?si=hyxK8ZvzLPhbQ8JI
drekipus|2 years ago
I kind of think these are just middle class issues rather than poverty; but you're right that this means different things to different people.
> Decisions small and large, accumulate and create a much bigger impact than most people imagine. Now imagine having to make these decisions consistently for two decades until you can see the return on it - like say your kids actually getting a better job or you becoming an entrepreneur or finding a career ...etc.
I think there's an element of "little bit at first, then all at once" -- i don't think it's that these individual items that "make wealth" but rather, they would be symptoms of different states of mind regarding stress, risk, etc.
I climbed out of poverty and met my wife who's "comfortably middle-class" -- she has no appetite for risk (see dr straight away, get name-brand products, college first) and i have a much larger appetite for risk (wait and see, bulk-buy products, work first).
Interesting to think about, thanks for the comment; i wonder if there is/should be a study / analysis on those questions.
j6zauas4gz|2 years ago
I don't think so. I grew up squarely middle class (and the question was never "can we afford health care or collage", but a weeklong trip to Disney world set our vacation budget back several years (to the point we could not take vacations, or only took small road trips).
The idea of not being able to afford basic health care or a university education should be utterly alien to the middle class.
cartucho1|2 years ago