[corobo]

> a £50 fine might as well be £50,000- its unpayable, and leads to a sort of doom-spiral of lending to avoid worse consequences. Easily you can end up in unmanageable debt

Yup! Bank gave me an overdraft when I was 16. At 37 I'm still in debt connected to that first bit of "free" money.

I've never earned above £0, and at this point it's too late to care. They can write me off as a minor loss when I kick it haha

[danans]

> I've never earned above £0, and at this point it's too late to care

If you have never earned above 0 at age 37, that suggests that you have a personal situation that actually prevents you from working, not so different from a disabled person might face. Just as tragic is the fact that people who do work full time and earn very little also end up in similar debt spirals.

In benevolent societies such people might end up being helped by the social safety net, but in less benevolent societies, they often end up on the streets. There are active experiments in decreasing benevolence right now across many societies.

[dijit]

it’s not terribly uncommon even in the UK to be generationally unemployable.

Homelife being bad = bad grades

bad grades = no support for further education

no basic (or further) education = disadvantage in entry jobs

no experience in entry jobs = red flag for employers (even for other entry level jobs in future where better educated folks fresh from school are also applying).

The larger the gap, the bigger the red flag.

I was in this trap, I just struck a particular lottery that the thing I love most (computers) was a booming industry which had no formal education requirements.

[corobo]

I work and earn money, my balance has never been above zero. Worded it clumsily maybe.

[cryptonector]

> I've never earned above £0, and at this point it's too late to care.

You're a sysadmin and what not -- how can that be?

[corobo]

Low salary for the role in my local area and not moving to a city when I still had the ability to take credit out

[HPsquared]

If it's any consolation that's how finances work for most governments.

[corobo]

No consolation needed - if I come across as woe is me it's not the intention. It is what it is and all that. I've got food, I've got shelter. It'll do.

You're born, you keep your head down, and you die - if you're lucky.