Why Poor People's Bad Decisions Make Perfect Sense

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/why-poor-people-make-bad-decisions?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark


What we know about poverty is often academic. It's rare to have a poor person actually explain it on their own behalf. So this is me doing that.

There's no way to structure this coherently. They are random observations that might help explain the mental processes. But often, I think that we look at the academic problems of poverty and have no idea of the why. We know the what and the how, and we can see systemic problems, but it's rare to have a poor person actually explain it on their own behalf. So this is me doing that, sort of.

Rest is a luxury for the rich. I get up at 6AM, go to school (I have a full courseload, but I only have to go to two in-person classes) then work, then I get the kids, then I pick up my husband, then I have half an hour to change and go to Job 2. I get home from that at around 1230AM, then I have the rest of my classes and work to tend to. I'm in bed by 3. This isn't every day, I have two days off a week from each of my obligations. I use that time to clean the house and soothe Mr. Martini and see the kids for longer than an hour and catch up on schoolwork. Those nights I'm in bed by midnight, but if I go to bed too early I won't be able to stay up the other nights because I'll fuck my pattern up, and I drive an hour home from Job 2 so I can't afford to be sleepy. I never get a day off from work unless I am fairly sick. It doesn't leave you much room to think about what you are doing, only to attend to the next thing and the next. Planning isn't in the mix.

When I was pregnant the first time, I was living in a weekly motel for some time. I had a minifridge with no freezer and a microwave. I was on WIC. I ate peanut butter from the jar and frozen burritos because they were 12/$2. Had I had a stove, I couldn't have made beef burritos that cheaply. And I needed the meat, I was pregnant. I might not have had any prenatal care, but I am intelligent enough to eat protein and iron whilst knocked up.

I know how to cook. I had to take Home Ec to graduate high school. Most people on my level didn't. Broccoli is intimidating. You have to have a working stove, and pots, and spices, and you'll have to do the dishes no matter how tired you are or they'll attract bugs. It is a huge new skill for a lot of people. That's not great, but it's true. And if you fuck it up, you could make your family sick. We have learned not to try too hard to be middle-class. It never works out well and always makes you feel worse for having tried and failed yet again. Better not to try. It makes more sense to get food that you know will be palatable and cheap and that keeps well. Junk food is a pleasure that we are allowed to have; why would we give that up? We have very few of them.

[unblock]

1. huge k&r!!! please someone give it a 5th rec for the greatest!!!

[Trillo]

2. $1000 in her pocket

but couldn't even rent a hotel room.

Yeah, those hotel corporations are certainly criminals.

[dawg]

3. This is the sort of thing lots of people need to read.

The Mikas and Morning Joes of the world live on a completely different planet from the poor.

[xchrom]

6. +1

[closeupready]

4. Big K&R - She writes better than 90% of us on DU!

Amazing essay.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. So, society should... what?

http://www.gofundme.com/59yrak

I read the above story, and the follow-on ones last year, and I hope that the $62,000 in donations she received helped to lift her out of that cycle.

I see four potential basic responses to the story;
1) Poor people will always be poor because poverty precludes wise decisionmaking. It's insulting to suggest that the root cause of poor decisions is anything other than being poor, or to suggest that anything should be done to discourage these poor decisions.
2) Throwing more money at the problem isn't a solution. As others have observed, "money is but a symptom of self-worth and a means by which humans separate from each other. Poverty is an emotional (rather than simply) physical state"
3) Poverty efforts require more NSA money to overcome the inevitable poor decisionmaking that poverty creates. The poor need enough money to adequately feed the kids and heat their homes after buying cigarettes, pizza and Mountain dew.
4) Poverty can't be rectified by simply handing a small amount of cash to people who lack the skills, outlook or inclination to manage it. Spending on poverty programs may be inadequate, but the primary problem is how it is spent.

People respond to a complex set of incentives. Figure out what it is that cements people into the situations described in the documentary about Troy NY above, and use those incentives to change the attitudes.

[jeff47]

7. #2 is wrong.

More money can fix the problem, in the form of a higher minimum wage. That way you don't have people like the woman in the OP working two jobs to make ends meet.

That also solves #1, because now they can avoid many more of the "bad" decisions they had to make due to lack of money. Payday lenders will make a lot less money, though.

#3 is the actual problem, but contains the bullshit that is attempting to label all poor people with vices in order to make doing nothing more palatable.

#4 is bullshit from someone who believes the poor are lazy moochers.

[ymetca]

8. Lumberjack Jeff .. what a stooge!

Look at any rich person's spending habits and tell me they are "wise" with their money. Why, they "waste" literally billions of it as far as the poor are concerned.

Money isn't an "asset", and the so-called "skill" required to horde it is... what did Jesus say? --a sin.

But it's dangerous to believe money is just something we made up to oppress each other.

So we crucified that poor fool.

Christians to the lions!

In God We Trust (All Others Pay 28% Interest).

Or, as Philip K. Dick once stated, "The Empire Never Ended".

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. Why discussionist is better: exhibit #101 n/t

[leftstreet]

9. How much money has Obama spent on cigarettes?

Why are impoverished people held to a subjective standard of 'personal responsibility,' but rich people aren't?

The answer is always the answer...well they already have the money

Ugh