Being Broke

[WilliamPitt]

It occured to me the other day that everyone has been writing and reporting on what is happening to the economy, why it is happening, who's to blame, etc...but I haven't seen anyone write about what it is like to have it happen to you. Thus:



Being Broke
By William Rivers Pitt

Wednesday 25 March 2009

He who knows how to be poor knows everything.

- Jules Michelet

Being broke means knowing about Coinstar machines and where the closest one is. Usually they're in the back corner of the local supermarket, right between the bank machine you can't get money from because your account is overdrawn and the counter where they sell the scratch tickets you're not quite desperate enough to try just yet.

Used to be you'd have to go to the bank and get those little brown coin sleeves. You'd have to sit at a table with the pile of change you'd been collecting in a mug or old vase and sort the pennies from the nickels from the dimes, always putting the quarters off to the side because you need those for the laundry machine or the parking meter. You'd load up the little brown sleeves with coins, toss them in a bag, and turn them in at the bank for some folding green. It was never much, and it took forever to load up the sleeves, but it was money.

With Coinstar, however, the little brown sleeves never come into play. You just have to load up a bag or a pocket with your coins and jingle your way to the grocery store. You dump the coins into the tray of the Coinstar, the change goes clinking and plinking into the maw of the machine, and a little screen counts it all up for you. While you check the little side tray to see how many buttons and Canadian coins got rejected, a little slip of paper is printed telling you how much money you just handed over. You take the slip to the service desk, and they give you the cash. It's never much, but it's money.

Being broke means not having cable television, which is going to get interesting once they do the much-ballyhooed switchover to digital. For now, the airwaves are still free, and if you can afford a television and are handy with the rabbit ears, there's always something on to fill the hours once occupied by the job that disappeared out from under you. Being broke means knowing where all the gas stations are, and which one has the cheapest regular unleaded, but being broke means leaving the car parked because you can't even afford the cheap stuff, can't afford the car, and don't have anywhere to drive now that the job's gone. There's always the bus, unless you dumped your change for the fare into the Coinstar.

Being broke means ignoring heat, gas and electricity bills for as long as possible, because those guys are always the ones who wait the longest before shutting you off. Being broke means hating and despising the mailbox, because it always has some bad news inside waiting for you, because it is the symbol of your failure to manage things. Its partner in spite is the telephone, if it still works, because a ringing phone all too often means another bill collector is reaching out for money you don't have, so you don't answer, and it rings, and rings, and rings.

Being broke means you can't pay the rent, can't pay the mortgage, can't pay the credit card bill, can't pay the student loan, can't make the car payment, can't pay tuition, can't buy the medicine, which means having to borrow, which tastes like slippery metal in your mouth. "Neither a lender nor a borrower be," said William Shakespeare, which is fine for a guy getting paid by the Queen but doesn't always work out quite that way for everyone else. Your credit is shot and you have no collateral, so no bank will touch you. You meet a friend and try to steer the conversation into whatever vein will let you broach the question without feeling humiliated, but you always do anyway. You call a parent and hang your head and wring your hands and feel hot blood crash into your face because you are so very, very ashamed. The best part, however, is when whomever you ask for help is broke, too, which leaves you embarrassed and ashamed and just as short as you'd been before you asked.

Being broke means never getting a good night's sleep. It means being afraid to close your eyes because of what you'll see waiting for you there in the darkness. If the TV gets reception, you become well-versed in the late-night programming. Being broke turns your stomach into a constant reminder of your situation, because it's a ball of angst and dread right there in the middle of you. You are never hungry when your stomach talks to you about finances, which is good because you barely have enough for a slice at the local pizza shop. It's just you and your fears in the twitching light of the television in the middle of the night because they're going to cut off the electricity and you're out of change and there are no jobs and you just can't sleep.

Being broke makes it hard to look your spouse or your parents or your children or your friends in the eye because you don't have any answers. We get look-on-the-bright-side and things-will-turn-up fed to us with mother's milk, but none of that alleviates the weight on the back of your neck that pushes your head down and robs you of sleep.

Being broke these days, however, means you're not alone. There's always a line at the Coinstar now, always a line at the counter of the music store where they buy used CDs and DVDs for pennies on the dollar. The gas station with the cheapest regular unleaded is always busy, and the check-cashing joint where you can pay overdue utility bills is filled with half the people from your neighborhood. There are always familiar faces at the unemployment office, and everyone knows exactly what's going on with you and everybody else.

Being broke is a familiar experience for most of us now. People are going broke, households are going broke, towns, cities, counties, states, nations, hemispheres are going broke, and why? Because several very old, very bad ideas are going broke, and taking the lot of us along for the ride down the chute. Being broke is among the most solitary and shattering of experiences; in a crowd of broke people, everyone always feels alone.

You're not alone.

[malaise]

1. And being broke is being invisible on M$Greedia

It's easier to pretend people aren't suffering.

Excellent post WilliamPitt.

[AzDar]

2. Wow. This brought tears to my eyes, and I can't quite figure out why.

[SharonAnn]

4. Coinstar charge 7-8% don't they? I only use the one at my Credit Union where

I don't get charged because I have an account there.

but in most public type places they charge a big percentage.

[WilliamPitt]

7. 8.9 cents on the dollar

Tolerable.

[Warpy]

10. Jaysis!

I'll skip the machine and just roll it myself.

If I'm out of wrappers, I've been known to use junk mail envelopes and glue.

Gawd knows when I've been broke there's been little else to do.

[mitchum]

36. See post 34

[Blue_Tires]

144. it's not that bad when you use it for pennies/nickels

if i have a water cooler bottlefull, i'll gladly pay someone 9 percent to count it for me...

of course, it makes a lot less economic sense to ever use quarters -- you do end up losing money there when you can just spend or roll quarters...

[oldtime dfl_er]

165. I've been there

I've been not just broke, but poor, most of my life. There's a difference, I think. Being broke has a temporary sound to it. Being poor is a state of being. I have been so poor that I couldn't afford a postage stamp, back in the days when that was how I corresponded with my parents. My father complained bitterly to my siblings that "everyone can afford a postage stamp". That comment is the true sign of someone who has never been broke.

Thank you, Will, for another illuminating article.

[badgerpup]

187. The head...you has hit the nail upon it.

A friend of mine puts it this way:

"Being 'broke' is in the wallet...and it's temporary...although it feels like forfuckinever sometimes.
Being 'poor' is in your head...and that's a lot harder to fix, even when you get the chance."

Uncle Grumpy is nothing if not clearsighted and a bit salty...:patriot:

[Name removed]

218. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[uppityperson]

26. Being Broke is not using coinstar because of the 9% charged.

being broke is getting those tubes and filling them on your own. For 90 cents, I'll roll $10 on my own.

[mitchum]

38. see post 34

[Ms. Toad]

55. I'm not broke - and I still roll my own.

After all, that 8.9 cents per dollar isn't much, but its money.

But then, again, I don't have cable either...my daughter calls me cheap.

[Historic NY]

110. me too

[MADem]

128. I am with you--that percentage is usurious.

You're not missing much on cable--I called them up and threatened to cancel; they gave me everything save HBO/Showtime type premiums for six months...and ya know what? There's nothing on.

[Ms. Toad]

140. I'm not really interested in getting a bunch more shows

I just want to be able to have the TV on in the background while I cook or do photo editing - and come the switchover in June, my TV disappears almost entirely (one PBS station and 5 flavors of "All Jesus, All the Time, thanks to multicasting). I go from there being figuratively nothing on to being literally nothing on.

[MADem]

220. Have you gotten a digital box (or a digital TV) and antennae?

If you're in an outlier area, you may also need a booster on your antennae, but you may be able to get more than you think you can get. A lot of the stations aren't broadcasting their digital signal at full strength--the PBS franchises are, most of them, but a lot of the crappy, smaller stations are still pumping out the old analog signal till the last minute, and are only providing a low-power digital transmission until the last minute.

[Ms. Toad]

228. ...Sigh...

(I was one of the rabble-rowsers cheering loudly at the delay until June - and was the target of quite a few nasty posts from people who called me technologically illiterate, lazy, a procrastinator, and a lot of other things.)

We have a digital box (since Oct/Nov), and two different flavors of the strongest amplifier available, and a roof antenna. We get "All Jesus, All the Time" (5 flavors), One PBS station (most of the time), and - if I stand directly in front of my TV with the VHF gain turned way down, the UHF gain turned way up, and hold on to the fully retracted rabbit ears I can get ABC. If I let go with even one hand, I lose the signal. The stations I can't get carry the other major networks (NBC, CBS, FOX) and are broadcast out of Cleveland - so they're probably not the crappy smaller stations - but I am very grateful they are still pumping out the old analog signal until the last minute.

I won't know until June if I will be able to get any more. They will pay musical stations then, and maybe some of them will boost their signal (although I have been told the local ABC affiliate that no one in our area will be boosting their signal). At least in June I will not be in danger of sliding off the ice on my roof when I see if adding a second, different, antenna to my roof will make any difference.

This mandatory transition is not making me a happy camper, and there are a lot of other folks in the same boat for whom TV that was previously free will be unavailable. That's the dirty little secret of the digital transition. Until the last couple of weeks when they were considering delaying the transition, no one mentioned that the wonders of digital TV will not be available to a substantial number of people - many of whom live in poorer, outlying areas, and couldn't afford cable - even if it were available (which it generally is not).

Although I can afford it, and might be willing to pay up to $10 a month (or so) for just the basic channels I can currently get for free, there are many who cannot afford it. And being willing or able to pay a small amount doesn't really matter anyway - the cheapest advertised package is around $30/month for the first year, then bumps to around $45/month for the rest of the mandatory 2 year contract.

[MADem]

229. You need to call the stations you're getting now--really.

Or shoot them out an email. Find out if they are pumping out their signal at full volume yet, or not. Also, find out if they are broadcasting their digital signal on the same number as their analog signal, or if they're temporarily broadcasting on a different spectrum at a lower intensity. Do a refresh of your box or your channel selector periodically to see if they've adjusted their signal at all.

I have a friend who is in your boat, and who has solved his problem with an adjustment in the direction that the rooftop antenna is oriented towards, and a signal booster. Also, he got a newer antennae--his old one that picked up his analog signal wasn't cutting it anymore and could not pull in the signal--the new one, though, does a great job. I've gotta say, the pic he gets is fantastic--you can see the hairs on their chinny-chin-chins!

[Ms. Toad]

234. Already have.

One is broadcasting on a different number (is already broadcasting at full intensity on that spectrum and will stay there - it is the only one I can get now at all). The others will be moving on June 12 and are not planning on boosting their signals anytime soon - or at least not that they will acknowledge.

Rooftop antenna is already oriented toward their broadcast towers. The problem is that analog fades out to fuzz whereas digital is binary - it is either there or not. I have been (and am willing to continue to) tolerate fuzz long past the point at which digital degrades to not being there at all.

Adding a new rooftop antenna is costly, and wasteful if it either isn't necessary or doesn't solve the problem. I am not planning on replacing it until after the switchover since I will not know whether it is necessary until after they play musical stations and start broadcasting in their new locations at whatever power they eventually use. Even once they do switch, I won't know whether it will work until I buy and install (or pay someone to install) a new rooftop antenna - so I may still be throwing money away. What good is a brand new antenna that doesn't pick up anything beyond the limited selections we can already get. The analog signal is so weak here that all of our neighbors long ago switched to cable - so there is no one else who might have installed a newer rooftop antenna we can check with.

All this to solve a problem that was created by government intervention in a system that is serving far more people than the digital broadcasts ever will. Anyone who wants to get rid of the fuzz, or wants more stations, can pay for cable or satellite; those of us who are happy with what comes freely over the air could have - but for government intervention - continued to take advantage of the freely available broadcasts.

[Lorien]

118. Yep. I'm there now. nt

[SheilaT]

160. I don't consider

8.9 cents on the dollar tolerable, not when the banks will give you the little sleeves for free. Heck, I'm no where near as flat broke as what's described in the OP, and the first time I looked at one of the Coinstar things thinking that would be an easier way to turn my coins into cash, I walked away. A few days later I took a box full of coins to my bank, they had a machine that sorted and counted and gave me the folding money without charging anything.

It's bad enough not to have much money. It's bad enough not to have a checking account so you have to pay for money orders to pay bills. It's bad enough you have to walk everywhere so maybe you buy your groceries at a high-cost little store rather than being able to drive to Discount Grocery Store. But to go ahead and voluntarily give up nearly ten percent of your valuable coinage, I just don't get it.

I keep on telling myself that being poor is not synonymous with being stupid, but sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.

[shimmergal]

216. Hey everybody,

I don't think Coinstar's 8.9% is tolerable, but you know what? If you use your coins to get a voucher for Amazon.com, they don't charge the 8.9%. And then you don't have to put your book orders on a credit card either. Since my bank took AWAY the free coin-counting machines that used to be in their lobbies, I always save my coins till I have over $25 dollars worth. Then with their super-saver rates, it's possible to avoid 1) state sales tax, and 2) paying for shipping. That's the best deal I know of.

Of course if you're completely broke, you're probably not ordering from Amazon. But I hope not many of us will be, or stay, in such a bad place for very long.

[The Stranger]

170. Tolerable?

If it charged me 9% I'd be tempted to smash the fucking machine.

[leveymg]

193. Call that the supermarket poor tax on food. The payday loan places charge 390% APR

This stuff is intolerable.

[ejpoeta]

46. it's tough when it seems no one will take rolled coin anymore. but i think

i can take rolled coin to my bank.

[Warpy]

180. The bank will take it

and they'll give you the rollers for free.

[KoKo]

75. My bank doesn't charge me anthing for "roll my own." Took in $500.00

last November in Baggies ...all rolled up. Bought a new vacuum cleaner with the money. I'd been saving the pocket money for years...here and there and rolling it when it became overwhelming. Putting it in the bank wouldn't have given me much interest...but buying that new vacuum made me smile! :-)

BTW: What I had left over I put in our "getaway cash" stashed in our bookcase...just in case...

[ellisD]

231. WaMu charged me for accepting wrapped coin rolls

When I used to bank with Washington Mutual, I remember one time I went in with about $40 in change, mostly pennies. The teller told me that I could deposit the first 2 coin rolls free (per day), but after that there would be a 10 cent fee for each roll deposited, regardless of coin type. At 50 cents per roll of pennies, this works out to a 20% fee! Mind you I showed up with the coins already wrapped, so this was not a charge for paper sleeves....

Now I use Navy Federal Credit Union, and some branches have a free coinstar-type machine in the lobby, although you have to have an account since it deposits directly into your account.

[Statistical]

77. Some coinstars are "free"

I noticed sign on the coinstar at our local Food Lion (grocery) that you can get your $$$ on a Food Lion debit card w/ no fee.

Now it doesn't do you any good if you need money for non-food but if you need food = no fee.

Bring bag of change and get a couple groceries.

[knitter4democracy]

161. Same here. The credit union one is free.

And yes, I know that. *sigh*

[DirtyJersey]

168. Use it at the supermarket

Most supermarkets will give you the full amount if you spend it there, and food should definitely be the number one priority for any money you have.

[greblc]

3. Goosebumps...

.

[DemReadingDU]

5. A couple years, we're all going to find out

What it's like to be broke.
:(

[WeDidIt]

6. Back to the top you go. n/t

[grasswire]

8. dear Will Pitt

When I was in a very broke and desperate time of my life, I realized "For a writer, there are no bad experiences. Only useful experiences."

And so it is for you.

Small comfort, I know, when each day has its humiliations.

You know that I think you are a bright talent. I believe you have the stuff to spur a people -- a dangerous talent, perhaps, in the eyes of the status quo. But you have it. And there will come a time and a place where your worst experiences will be the fuel of brilliance.

Eyes open, senses keen. The story is yours to absorb, for now.

[WilliamPitt]

12. For the sake of full disclosure...

...I should say that this is not some kind of confession article. I'm in a couple of the places described above, not all; I have dealt with most of the scenarios at some point or another, but this essay is about everyone I know. These are the conversations I have with friends from all walks of life. This isn't about me, not all of it. This is about us, about so many peoplke I know, about where we've all been at one time or another.

Thanks. :hug:

[grasswire]

15. hell, I was about to send you a can of chef boyardee

It does double duty, you know. Carbs, and also blunt instrument.

[WilliamPitt]

18. Saved me from a mugging once

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0411/S00083.htm

I stood in the wind and the rain outside the Boston Public Library in Copley Square for eight hours on Tuesday night with tens of thousands of Kerry supporters, watching the election returns come in on giant screens, listening to speakers whip up the crowd, listening to girls scream while Jon Bon Jovi worked his way through 'Living on a Prayer.' That last bit was one of the low points. There were others.

As the night wore on and the wind got colder, the returns took a turn for the Bush. When Tom Brokaw came on the big screen and declared that NBC was putting Ohio in the Bush column, you could hear the air go out of the crowd. When the gospel singers came out and started singing 'God Bless America' for the fourth time that night, I decided enough was enough. I walked down to my favorite bar and fired down a pint of Mojo IPA, feeling the outer edges of a truly epic hate-frenzy beginning to work its way into my bones. I shrugged my coat back on, gave the disconsolate bartender a hug, and headed home. On the way, I stopped at the 7/11 and bought a can of Chef Boy-Are-Dee Beef Ravioli.

That's when the unexpected help showed up. As I was sliding my key into the back door of my apartment building, a young man emerged silently from the bushes behind me. I turned the key, and suddenly it felt like my head had exploded. The man from the bushes had thrown what was later revealed to be a large, 20 lb. cobblestone at me. It bounced off my shoulder, blasted into my jaw, and dropped heavily at my feet.

I reeled into the door but didn't fall. The fellow, assuming that anyone struck with a 20 lb. rock was ripe for the picking, started to come at me. I turned, and in a moment of truly dumb Braveheart macho testosterone rage, charged the guy. He stepped back in surprise, and then turned to flee. I pursued him down the street, brandishing the can of ravioli over my head while screaming unkind comments about his inappropriate sexual relationship with his mother, until my jaw reminded me that it might be broken.

After the cops and the EMTs and the x-rays were finished with me, the diagnosis was that nothing was broken or loose. My face is pretty torn up, but I should be able to chew solid food in a couple of days with the help of the Ibuprofen/Percocet cocktail the folks in the emergency room were kind enough to give me. As for the guy who threw the rock, I have no idea where he came from or what he was about. There are a few junkies wandering my neighborhood, so I assume this was an attempted mugging...possibly the first mugging in American history to be thwarted by a thick skull and a can of Chef Boy-Are-Dee.

;)

[grasswire]

48. I know

That's why I was going to send it.

[WilliamPitt]

49. Thanks for the thought

I think.

;)

[Warpy]

9. Being broke also means

getting the mail after dark because you feel so much shame you really don't want to see any of your neighbors, even though they're all nice folks.

Being broke means keeping one good outfit and wearing it only long enough to apply for a job. The rest of the time you're in thrift shop stuff that was rags when they got it and two years hard use hasn't improved it. You just hope your weight doesn't change before you find a job in that one outfit.

Being broke means staying inside all the time because just a walk to the corner seems to cost money.

Being broke means going to the library on a Tuesday morning when the only other people there are homeless guys who are worse off than you are, just to catch up on the newspaper and magazines the library gets but you can't afford any more.

Being broke means getting down to that stuff in the back of the cupboard that you don't know how long ago you bought and hoping it won't poison you.

Being broke means reverting to that hairdo you thought you'd left behind in the 60s, that ponytail at the nape of your neck. You know it looks like hell, but cutting it yourself looked worse.

Being broke means getting sick and realizing you'll get better or you'll die but the one thing you won't get is help.

Worst of all, being broke means you see pity and contempt in everybody else's face even when it isn't there.

[WilliamPitt]

17. A friend who read an early draft of this

made a great point: people who are broke in this country often take upon themselves 100% of the guilt and responsibility for their situation, when all too often they are victims of any number of outside factors they cannot be blamed for.

It is a nifty bit of large-scale crowd control when millions of people blame themselves for economic factors they didn't cause and cannot control...everyone feels shame and stays quiet and blames themselves when everyone should be yelling their heads off.

[Schema Thing]

91. the French know how to do it

[juajen]

94. Hi Will, great writing, as usual.

This recession-depression has really made my family grateful for SS. God forbid, if we didn't have it, we would have gone down seriously in this economy.

I wonder what the story is from people who have that cushion now, as opposed to the Great Depression days? If you don't have a handle on this, I would love to read an article by you addressing the experience then and now. If you have written about it, I would love to be pointed toward the article.

As usual, nice to see you, Will.

[dixiegrrrrl]

169. Thank you for that comment.

I just sent it to my 2 sons, who are 38 & 40 and really feeling the the pain of the horror ecomomy. One has lost job for 4th time in 2 years, one is scrimping by, both are way too wise in the skills of cheap living.
My heart breaks for them and there is nothing I can do to help in any significant way.

[Carni]

184. The screwed over public should be LIVID not ashamed

Even on this thread there are a few snipes about the broke/poor (whoever)being "stupid" for using a coinstar--well gee, maybe they don't have a bank account and don't feel like suffering the humiliation of having a bank not take their rolled coin because they don't have an account there (ever think of THAT snipers?)

When 90% of this countries wealth lies with the top 1% -- or whatever the figure is, I will be damned if I will feel ashamed if I am broke because the bush admin and a bunch of banking jerks gamed the system took the money and ran.

The thieves at the top played us like the fools we are...so timid and conditioned that we'll suffer any indignity, blame ourselves and then lie about our circumstance -- what a bunch of bullshit!

Great piece by the way Will!

[eridani]

197. True--banks tend not to be interested in services for people without accounts

If the Coinstar interest is less than the bus fare to a bank that will let you change rolls for bills, you are ahead of the game.

[Warpy]

223. I kept a $10 savings account

with a pass book, the old fashioned kind, just so I'd be able to cash checks and turn in rolled coins.

I don't know if they'll do that any more, but it worked in the late 60s and early 70s.

[eridani]

226. Mostly not. They ding you with service charges until the account gets closed n/t

[PatSeg]

202. When I'm "down and out"

I tend to shut myself off from people and sadly that is when I need the support the most. I hate the sympathy and concerned questions. It only makes me feel worse.

[LSparkle]

23. I actually DO cut my own hair nowadays ...

And some days, yes, I wear it in a ponytail. Looks
OK, though -- it's amazing what you CAN do for yourself
if you're sort of forced into it.

[LSparkle]

25. My God, I really AM NOT alone ... the thing about getting mail in the dark

sadly rings true ... also taking out trash. I try
and slip in and out of my building without having
to make small talk with the neighbors anymore ...

[Warpy]

108. That's why I wrote it

Nobody who is broke right now is alone and it's not your fault.

Not. Your. Fault.

It's hard as hell to get that to register when you're in the middle of it.

[TygrBright]

157. No, but we'll pee test you when you try to get help anyway.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3801111&mesg_id=3801111

God these people make my blood boil I literally get dizzy with rage when I read shit like this. I want to sink my actual teeth into them and taste blood.

And yes, I'm a Quaker, and a pacifist, and no, I won't act on those feelings, but damn! they overwhelm me anyway.

Sorry, Warpy, not trying to go off on YOU, it just popped when I read your post. Which is kind and correct and absolutely the right thing to post here.

embarrassedly,
Bright

[OneGrassRoot]

113. No adequate words....

but I empathize with much of the suffering so many are enduring. Many of us have been struggling for a long time...the downturn in the economy hasn't really changed much for us as yet. We've been struggling and juggling for a long time, with others depending upon us to keep food on the table, with homelessness literally one paycheck away.

And, sure, someone always, always has it worse. I'm not sure about you, but that line has never made me feel better. I feel for everyone suffering...and I try not to judge the level of suffering if I haven't walked in their shoes.

This human thing is so hard. All I know is, if I didn't have hope that it will get better or a belief in the innate goodness of others...even if it's buried quite deep...I would have nothing. That doesn't work for everyone, but it has gotten me through the worst of it. Some things HAVE turned around of late; some things that seemed beyond hope.

As trite as it seems and even sounds to me as I type it, I send hugs to you all, and to those you know who are suffering. It's heartfelt, and with good intention. I'll try to have hope for those who don't have the strength left to carry it themselves.

Thanks for the OP, Will.


:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

[Autumn]

11. Very familiar and everyone I know is

feeling the pinch more and more.

[C......N......C]

13. " Only 911 calls can be made from this phone "

That is what being really broke sounds like. Ever heard it ?

[mountainvue]

85. Yep. We are not alone. n/t

[Spacemom]

14. Wow

who slipped in a wrote about my life?

Amazing description of exactly what it feels like.

There's nothing even left for coinstar at this point. :(

[Coyote_Bandit]

16. You may not be the only one experiencing it BUT

You are very much alone if there is no one to help, support or encourage you.

You are very much alone if your only source of cash is liquidating what few personal assets you still have.

You are very much alone if you bear the responsibility of caring for someone else who is unable to care for themselves.

You are very much alone if you require physical care in order to even entertain the possibility of working to provide for yourself.

You are very much alone if you have no hope that tomorrow will be better.

[C......N......C]

19. I really do not understand this.

[WilliamPitt]

29. Really?

(quoting the post you don't get in italics)

You are very much alone if there is no one to help, support or encourage you.

Lots of people deal with this.

You are very much alone if your only source of cash is liquidating what few personal assets you still have.

See: Coinstar, selling of CDs and DVDs, etc. There's a reason why pawn shops do booming business in times like these.

You are very much alone if you bear the responsibility of caring for someone else who is unable to care for themselves.

MS, Parkinsons, ALS, stroke, Alzheimer's...someone you know is married to, related to or friends with someone who is a caregiver or provider for a person dealing with one of these maladies...and oftentimes such maladies render the sufferer incapable of caring for themselves, which means someone else has to. You're not one such, clearly. I am.

You are very much alone if you require physical care in order to even entertain the possibility of working to provide for yourself.

See above.

You are very much alone if you have no hope that tomorrow will be better.

If you have no help, no living relatives, no fortunate financial assistance, no job with liveable benefits, a syndrome or affliction with teeth, a dependent with same, i.e. if you cope with some or all of the burdens borne by those millions of people in America who endure what is described above, you'd either be above hopelessness or steeped in it, but for damn sure you wouldn't be quite so judgmental.

MHO.

[Rashel]

121. Being broke can also reveal some amazing things about people and yourself.

Like the person you slightly know who is well-off and seems to be snobby, and ends up being the very person offering to give you frequent rides.

And the person who you thought seemed just not that caring, kind of blunt, hands you money to pay a bill.

And a neighbor pops over with some groceries that she just "doesn't have room for".

And finding that I can judge people too quickly.

[Coyote_Bandit]

41. Millions of people can experience the very same thing

and each and every one of them can be very alone in the experience.

It is not about whether or not the experience is unique to someone.

Instead, it is about whether or not the individuals who suffer through this experience feel isolated and without aid, assistance or support. This is exactly how many who go through these kinds of experiences do indeed feel.

Apparently, you haven't been there. Count your blessings.

[SammyWinstonJack]

42. Lucky you then.

What's not to understand? :shrug:

[C......N......C]

76. Why does everybody jump to judgmental so fast? I misread it to mean

that it must be a very unique situation where there is no one to help or where you have it so bad that no one else has it that bad. And to posterS number 29 and 41 have you ever heard " only 911 calls can be made from this phone". So don't judge me, you don't have a clue.

[chrisa]

56. I disagree.

When you're poor, nobody cares about you. They just walk over you to go to JcPenny to pick up the newest spring style outfits while you're eating Ramen noodles and hoping nobody gets sick because there's no insurance.

Don't even get me started on the "working to provide for yourself" meme, as if everybody has all the opportunities in the world. Hoping that tomorrow will be better doesn't mean a thing when you're stuck in a quagmire and there's a 99.9% chance that it won't be.

[Coyote_Bandit]

78. Ummmm......

If you're poor more than likely you think that nobody cares about you. That perception is more important than any other reality because it shapes expectations.

Millions of people can have the same experience and each and every one of them can be very alone in the experience. It is not about whether or not the experience is unique. Instead, it is about whether or not the individuals who suffer through this experience feel isolated and without aid, assistance or support.

FWIW, I'm well educated with a history of holding responsible work positions. I'm also long term unemployed and quit counting rejection letters a few years back when they topped a thousand. I am responsible to help care for aging parents. I haven't seen a doctor for any reason in well over a decade. I have both visual and hearing impairments. I am not exactly young anymore and I am officially poor. I do not qualify for any kind of assistance whatsoever. In spite of the challenges I believe in myself. This is my opportunity. You don't have to agree and you don't have to share my belief. But it is my perception that shapes my reality not yours. And I do believe that tomorrow will be brighter.

[C......N......C]

79. Thanks for the clarification, I thought you were demeaning the poor. That

is what I didn't understand although I knew that you weren't , I just didn't understand your phraseology.

[Coyote_Bandit]

93. :-)

I used to work for rich people. I prefer the company of the poor and the hardworking who are far more honest and authentic without the need to put on airs and be pretentious. That preference isn't unique to me.

Things are tough for me right now - but I know that I am very fortnate and things could be much much worse. There will be a brighter tomorrow.

[OneGrassRoot]

114. Sorry, I meant to insert my post here....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5329439&mesg_id=5331856

[Coyote_Bandit]

119. I take no pleasure

in knowing that someone always has it worse. But it does cause me to be grateful and thankful for the good things that come my way - however small and insignificant.

Glad to hear that some things have turned around for you and are looking up.

:-)

[OneGrassRoot]

138. True words indeed, Coyote. Gratitude becomes a big part of life...

for even the seemingly smallest things. Sometimes the smallest things are what start to turn things around.

As I've said repeatedly in the last couple of years, after the death of several loved ones in a short span of time, I've learned to master the art of taking life one hour at a time. Even if that one hour is really miserable, it's better to not add to the stress by dreading the ones ahead. ;)

Take good care of you.....

:)

[Norrin Radd]

20. kr

[LSparkle]

21. Almost made me cry ... So much of it is familiar to me ...

I've been going through some troubles with my family and
I think I'll send a copy to my mom -- it describes the
shame I've been experiencing for the past few years.

Great post.

[mnhtnbb]

22. We still sit at the dining table (the kitchen is 8 x 8 --no table) and wrap the coins.

With time on our hands, why pay the machine guys when the bank hands out wrappers for free?

[Liberal_in_LA]

52. OMG... a walk back in time... rolling coins.

[truebrit71]

24. Wow.

There but for the grace of God go us all....a vast majority of this country is one missed paycheck away from total disaster...Me included...A proper night's sleep? Haven't had one of those for years..

[Zoonart]

27. All that loose change

My husband's pay was cut over eighteen months ago right after the first sub-prime crash. We have been cutting back on everything since. No eating out- no movies- public transit, etc. We did, however have one big payoff- we rolled all of our spare change. Jars of it- that had been hanging around for right years. It bought us a new laptop.

We have been rediscovering the small pleasures of being broke. Eating by candlelight some evenings. I hang out the laundry to cut the electric bill and many nights we play cards. We are lucky to be hanging in. Hope you all can hang in too.

[WilliamPitt]

44. Welcome to DU

:hug:

[xxqqqzme]

215. Love hanging out laundry

First thing I did after I bought my house - put in the posts to run some nylon cord for a clothes line. Growing a bigger selection of veggies in the backyard this year.

Welcome to DU.

[dembotoz]

28. thank you

[Lars39]

30. I am witnessing family members go under.

My brother was recently diagnosed with very advanced prostate cancer. Lost his job, trying to get on disability. He was also helping out his step-son who can't find work, and his step-daughter who can't find work. They're all going under and there's not a damn thing I do about it. Casseroles and what we can afford to give them only goes so far. :( They were so excited to learn that they can get a meal on the road at Taco Bell for 89 cents(5-Layer nacho..."they really fill you up!") :cry: To see them go from making pretty good money for that area to being downright poverty-stricken is just breaking my heart. :cry:

[TBF]

31. Excellent. And also true. K&R n/t

[H2O Man]

32. "Poverty

is the worst form of violence." -- Gandhi

[Liberal_in_LA]

33. Hey! I've used coinstar before. Do you have to be broke to use it? Good way to get rid of

coins

[MercutioATC]

50. I prefer to roll my own change and save the 9% fee.

Plus, I'll occasionally find an actual silver coin.

[Lilith Velkor]

81. I use mine in the self-checkout machine

I try to go when the store's not too busy.

[MercutioATC]

98. I take it you're not doing the weekly shopping for a family of four?

That's a LOT of change :)

[Lilith Velkor]

104. I don't accumulate it in huge jars like a lot of folks do

Seems wasteful to me.

[MercutioATC]

106. I'm guilty of that.

I throw my pocket change in a coffee can every evening. When the can gets full, I start rolling change...

[peace frog]

137. Not exactly wasteful but

it's something to do when there's nothing else to do, plus it's exhilerating to exchange rolled coins for folding green when you don't see much of it otherwise.

[grace0418]

171. Coinstar charges a ton. Chase doesn't charge and doesn't require rolled coins.

I just bring bags of coins in and they have the same machine Coinstar uses. And my bank doesn't charge me anything for the service, they put it right in my checking account. I'm courteous and try not to go in there during peak times, but they've never given me any trouble.

[mitchum]

34. Coinstar is one of the major lobbyists preventing the US Mint from ditching...

the inefficient and costly penny and nickel.

Your government at work...for someone.

[KittyWampus]

60. interesting tidbit of information. DU is like that sometimes.

[mitchum]

62. I found that out in, I think, an issue of The Smithsonian a few months ago...

it was one of the magazines that come into the house...
I'm pretty sure it was The Smithsonian

[derby378]

181. I disagree - we should not only keep the penny...

...but we should make it out of actual copper again.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

199. I've found a number of occasions when I've been grateful for those pennies...

Any money I find in the laundry automatically goes into the "Fun Fund".

Over the years, whenever I've found it necessary to be extra frugal (usually in the summer), the fund has purchased the occasional box of ice cream sandwiches or cheapo bathtub toy that would bring a sparkle to my kids' eyes.

[mitchum]

203. And then it will cost even MORE to manufacture...

presently the cost of materials is greater than its 1 cent value

[derby378]

222. We have adults back in charge on Capitol Hill - they can do something about this

This whole initiative towards fixing the economy can easily find time to address the issue of why it costs more than a penny to make a penny.

[shimmergal]

217. That may be so, but

if the penny and nickel both became obsolete (didn't know the nickel was even under consideration for it), EVERY commercial operation would just bump prices up to the next ten-cent point. That would likely cost us MORE than 8.9 cents on the dollar.

[redqueen]

35. Yep.

Fortunately I grew up that way though, so I'm used to it.

[Philosoraptor]

37. Add 'being in a wheelchair' & you've written my biography

Love it!

[Speck Tater]

39. They key is knowing HOW to be poor.

I used to make six figures and live in a 4,000 sq-ft home. Then it all came crashing down. I've been poor for the last 15 years or so, but I've never been happier.

You CAN be poor and still get a good night's sleep.

You CAN be poor and have friendly helpful neighbors, as long as they are poor as well. I never knew any of my neighbors when I lived in the gated "community". Now I live in a very poor neighborhood and know all of my neighbors. Where quality of life is concerned, it's a better neighborhood by far than my "good" neighborhood of years ago.

To the newly poor, those who have yet to learn HOW to be poor, "in a crowd of broke people, everyone always feels alone." But to the well-established poor, those who have truly learned the fine art of being poor, you will find you are always very much at home, and surrounded by "family".

Treat every day as an adventure. I remember climbing on my bike once with empty pockets, not a penny to my name, and returning home a few hours later with a week's supply of groceries. Between aluminum pop and beer cans picked up along the way and cashed in for the 5-cent deposit to buy bulk rice and beans, I found wild blackberries growing alongside the road, and the man down the street let me pick a bunch of apples and pears from his front yard. The old lady across the street traded me a dozen tomatoes from her backyard garden for helping her hook up the washing machine somebody had given her, etc. etc.

I don't worry about bill collectors because I've been too poor for too long to owe anybody anything. I use a pre-paid cell phone that costs me an average of $7 to $8 a month. I own my home (bought many years before the bubble jacked up prices), but I share with several other people with whom I split the mortgage. We have a nice veggie garden and some mature fruit trees. We are all poor, but its more a case of voluntary simplicity or a "vow of poverty" kind of thing. We've all learned that once you stop denying the reality of being poor, and stop believing that being poor is something to be ashamed of, or something that needs to be hidden, then you can finally embrace your poverty and learn not just to be proud of it, but to love it.

So Jules Michelet is correct. He who knows how to be poor knows everything.

[Fire1]

61. It IS 'freedom' in the truest sense of the word. I agree.

[barbtries]

71. i think you've got something there

i've had extreme downs and moderate highs in my life. these days i have a good job but i think the poor in me is permanent. i suppose that's why i am not scared about the future as i would have been once. my mettle has been tested and tested, and it is good. the only thing that worries me is the possibility of my 16-year-old joining the military because i can't afford to put him through college. but we're going to find a better way. somehow through my life i have ended up on my feet even after i thought i could not climb out of the hole i was in. i've had the best of friends and family to help me through too. and it's been one experience after another, a lot of pain but a lot of growth as well. there is very little i would change, but nothing that i can change (about the past). so be it. peace

[DollyM]

86. That's kind of where we are at . . .

When most everyone around you is in the same spot, it doesn't seem like your are poor, it is just being "average" I guess. Luckily we live in a small town and have good neighbors that will share out of their garden or anything that they have in time or resources. Our neighbor across the street loves to fish and brings over fresh fish to us. We just gave him our son's old basketball goal for his kids since our son never touches it anymore. It's things like that, we don't realize it is bad until we open the mailbox unfortunately. So far we have kept up on our bills but it is really tough some times, especially in the winter when it is so cold we don't want to get out of bed. But, we bartered with another neighbor and ended up with some nice firewood for the fireplace so that has helped tremendously. My mom reminds me that she grew up in the Depression and that is how it was then for everyone too. They did the same thing, cut back, re-used, made their own, and shared what they had with neighbors and everyone got through it.

[tabbycat31]

40. excellent post and article

K&R

[Duer 157099]

43. I refuse to pay 8-10% to Coinstar.

For me, going broke means finally finding room in my freezer. It used to be that I could not purchase what I wanted from Costco because the freezer was already full. Now my freezer is half empty. It's bitter sweet.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

96. me too...used to be the bank would sort your money,I remember the cool machine.

screw coinstar

[grace0418]

172. Chase still does. At least in Chicago. I've gone to two different branches to do

it and had no problem at all.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

224. Oh thanks for that info

:)

I'll have to have a look around here, see if I can find a branch.

[Patiod]

149. I look at Coinstar's 10% cut as a extravagance

We are lucky that the local Commerce bank has a free coin machine they use as bait to get people in the front door of the bank.

[Fireweed247]

45. This reminds me of the essay written by John Scalzi after Katrina

Being Poor
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/

Online essay becomes message board for poverty in America

By MARTHA MENDOZA
AP National Writer
Author, essayist and blogger John Scalzi wanted to respond to Hurricane Katrina - he wanted to help. And so he sat down at his keyboard and began to write.

His essay, "Being Poor," gives readers a glimpse of poverty in America. And in the weeks since he posted it on his Web site, www.scalzi.com, the essay has become a growing, living document, as contributors from around the world added their thoughts.
http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=79877

[BelgianMadCow]

102. that was .... very insightful

thanks a lot for the link.

It's so easy to think you've got it bad. And that you're alone.

[PVnRT]

142. I was going to post that as well

Beautiful essay, despite some of the dumbshit freeper comments on it.

[peacefreak]

47. Being broke

is having a few weeks left on unemployment & a broken car in the driveway & no money to fix it.

[marions ghost]

188. this is my friend's story

Unemployment ran out at the same time his car developed big problems recently and there's no money to fix it. So how does he get to a job?

He's only had various types of clerical, library & editing jobs all his life since graduating from a major univ with an undergrad degree in English in the start of the Reagan years. Never married & now lives with his elderly Mom as it's free accommodations and he helps care take her (she would be better off in professional assisted living)--can't move for job purposes because of her. This is someone who had his own nice apt and lived on his own a good many years. At his level of employment, jobs are ever more scarce now. My friend has never been able to do better than low-level clerical work despite his intelligence. He'd make a good employee for somebody, but can't seem to get out of the "disposable" bracket.

I don't have to tell this friend how to cope. He knows all the tricks of how to live on air so he doesn't need that--he needs a car. There's no public transport where he is. I don't have enough to literally help him and we have other closer obligations. He has never asked for help from us and is totally beyond "shame" at this point. Just talks matter-of-factly about it, rocking along, defying the wolves at the door. But for how long....? Even when his Mom goes and he gets a quarter of her small house, that won't last long. Are we going to watch this friend go down the tubes all the way? :scared:

There are so many in his situation and it's not beyond imagination for most of us. I don't think I could function with the level of financial insecurity that my friend endures on a daily basis. I'm really in awe of him. He's very brave. I wish I could do more than offer sympathy.

[Horse with no Name]

51. Being broke leads to one thing...

being broken.
Nice post.:thumbsup:

[pmorlan1]

53. Great Piece

Great piece.

Being broke is also not going to the doctor when you think you may have some seriously wrong with you just because you're afraid that if you do it will create a record for the insurance company to deny coverage for a pre-existing condition once you are finally able to afford healthcare. So you let it go and just hope it isn't something serious.

Being broke means you end up eating a lot of unhealthy foods because they're cheaper than the healthy meals (frozen pizza's around a buck a meal).

But sometimes being broke can feel quite liberating...you no longer care that the credit card companies are threatening you because you know you don't have any assets for them to get their grubby little hands on now that their greedy formula of adding late fees and charging out of this world interest rates have increased your manageable balance so high that you can no longer even make the minimum payment.

[NNN0LHI]

54. A plastic 96 Fluid Ounce Welch's Grape Juice bottle holds about $400 in assorted silver

I found that out recently at the bank.

Don

[closeupready]

57. k&r

n/t

[yy4me]

58. Great post and so true. I might add, being poor is: Being alone

and lonely, losing your spouse and your job within months of each other.

I'd give all I have if I could get my lifetime companion back.

I am trying to find a job.

Neither is going to happen.

I grow old.

[mnhtnbb]

66. I am so sorry for your losses, yy4me. Aging is something none of us can

hold back, but growing old without companionship is something we must all resist. I hope you
can find some new friends, somehow, somewhere, when you are ready.

:hug:

[GoCubsGo]

221. I am sorry.

I don't know how it feels to lose a spouse, since I never married. But, I understand about trying to find a job while growing old. I have been looking for over two years, no luck. I am sure I lost out on some opportunities because of my age (I'm 48.) I also have a Master's degree. Forget any stop-gap jobs at the grocery store or the big box home improvement store, or an entry-level job in your own field. Nobody wants to hire someone with more experience than they have. Don't give up hope on finding a job. If you can at least find a temp job somewhere, please go for it. I had one last summer, and will have it back again this summer. I took a huge cut in pay, but made a good connection in my supervisor. You never know when something like this will lead to opportunities.

[Two Americas]

59. good work

Well done. Thanks.

k and r

[Fumesucker]

63. My son in law's grandmother is 86

I was talking to her the other day, she appreciates the conversation and I enjoy it.

She tells tales of how, when she was a child, they grew sugar cane and took it to the mill that used to be right up the road to mill it so they could boil down the juice to cane syrup they would use for sweetener. She speaks of how they grew most of their own food, plowing, planting, hoeing, picking and canning.

They were *poor*..

But she says she never knew they were poor because everyone else around lived the same way.

Being poor when everyone else is also poor is one thing, being poor but surrounded by those who are apparently not is entirely another.

This is a picture of her family in front of their home, I'm not sure of the date but it's some time during the Depression, probably the late 30's. Hardly a McMansion, is it?



Here they are today, the man in this pic is the young boy in front in the first pic, the others are the young women.

[Brucie Kibbutz]

64. Just about every time I try to use Coinstar, these days,

it is already full. Drive over to the machine across town, it's full too. Even during the best of economic times, a lot of us have to scrape together change just so we can eat so I'm surely not the only one that has noticed this.

I'm afraid that the people trying to resurrect this broken financial system are determined that not a single aspect of it will be changed. They don't want to acknowledge the fact that it benefits the wealthy more and more while neglecting the working poor. Some are well aware of it and just don't give a shit. For them, the system works just the way they like it. They're trying like hell to prop it back up and don't care that we'll probably have all this to do over again before long.

Working people don't have a chance in this country any more.

[pmorlan1]

65. Being Broke Also Means

Our tobacco police won't like this but being broke also means that you have to skip a few meals so you can buy a pack of cigarettes because some self-appointed anti-tobacco citizens decided that it's ok to tax the hell out of cigarettes because they don't approve of them. The alternative for poor smokers is to try to give up one of the few things that give them any kind of pleasure.

[TheKentuckian]

90. I've been rolling my own for about a week

and it is GREAT!!!!

Better tobacco, less chemicals, and way cheaper (even if you get fancy with your swag).

I feel better just being a little less under the man's thumb.

[pmorlan1]

92. Rolling Your Own

I'm from Kentucky too! What brand of tobacco are you using?

[smalll]

107. I RYO myself. Do you know that big Fed taxes will start on RYO tobacco on April 1st this year?

It's part of the whole SCHIP thing, so that the Feds can pay for health care for kiddies whose families can make up to 80K a year. :shrug:

[stlsaxman]

136. ..learning how do it without folding the toilet paper.

[Warpy]

195. I understand

but also realize that taxing them also prevents stupid teenagers from getting hooked in the first place. There comes a point at which taxes become counterproductive, though, encouraging black marketeering and counterfeiting.

I know places around here will illegally sell "loosies" under the counter. I never sneer at anybody buying them. I know why they do it.

I also know smokers who have discovered the UK practice of relighting, taking a few drags to cure the itch and then stubbing the cigarette out, to be relit when the urge reappears.

Cigarette smoke makes me deathly sick. Do it outside and we'll get along fine, loosies and all.

[proud2BlibKansan]

67. Have you read Ruby Payne?

She defines poverty as "the extent to which an individual does without resources..."

[Jkid]

68. It's worse if you're a teenager or a child.

Being poor means making do without cable, and having a choice of either PBS Kids (if they show them during the afternoon anymore), talk shows, or the latest crime story shown on "local news".

Being poor means trying to deny being homeless at school while at the same time in fear of having to move to the streets with your family or living at a homeless shelter unless risking to be bullied out of school.

Being poor means being unable to fit in at school because you don't have the clothes or gadgets or video games or the money. No opportunity to "socialize" in the risk of you being found out that you're homeless.

Being poor means it's difficult to get a good grade in class because you have to study at a homeless shelter.

Being poor means the worst possible senario: the teenager is thrownaway from their own parents home or forced to leave as soon as he's 17 or 18 because they can't afford it anymore, and at that point it will be a struggle to graduate high school and trying to get a job.

And God help you (if there is a God) if you are ethnic,racial,sexual or gender minority or have a disability, especially if you are diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, for they will face a much more struggle to survive being poor.

[Wednesdays]

111. And if the child has ADHD, how to pay for meds?

Ours has severe ADHD, and the medication (just to bring to a "functional" level) costs more than our mortgage payments. And I'm not exaggerating.

[bluethruandthru]

69. But Chuck Todd wonders if we're sacrificing enough!

Great piece..thank you!

[Justpat]

70. I just used one last week.

We cashed in our coins for grocery money.

[FirstLight]

72. Honesty like this cuts me to the bone

I have never had to use the CoinStar - but many of those concepts ring true...the utilites, the mailbox, the feeling of dread and humiliation when having to ask for help... been RIGHT there with you, bro.

what I'd LIKE to think is that poverty teaches resilience in a way that many will never know. Everyone from the previous generations has a little feeling of that humility because of the Depression. But many lost sight of that since the 80's - when greed and self servitude became the ultimate GOD.

When the govt talks about service and sacrifice, they are drawing on that understanding of poverty's plight...but unfortunately, it is the poor who understand that the most. We are the ones who have formed communities and helped one another in times of crisis. We are the ones who nod in understanding when someone in front of us pulls out fheir food stamps and looks guilty ( for what? being hungry?)...we share information about jobs, we offer advice on the best subsidized childcare to trust with your kids as you go out to fulfillun the welfare requirements, we se eachother in the same places - the health dept, the clinic, the unemployment ofice, the battered women's shelters, soup kitchens, food banks, etc....

The HUGE disconnect between so much of our society is really mind boggling - I saw a commercial the other day for a new car...LEASED (not even to buy) a Volkswagen for $499/mo....like I have an extra $500 a month in disposable income, WHO DOES?
...no wonder the world is on the brink of disaster...NOBODY can live like that for any SUSTAINABLE amount of time..!!!

as much as being poor makes me feel down because I feel like I can't handle my responsibilities, I know how to get by with less in a YEAR than most make in a couple months!!! That has to count for something, right?

[madamesilverspurs]

73. Being broke (or poor)

means that you get to engage in very interesting conversations with the lovely folks at social services.

Poor Person: Can I get some help, please?

Social services: Are you working?

PP: No.

SS: Why not?

PP: Can't find a job.

SS: Have you looked?

PP: How do you think I found out there aren't any jobs?

SS: Don't get smart with me. Remember, we're here to help you.

PP: (meekly) Okay.

SS: Can you prove that you haven't been working?

PP: What do you mean?

SS: You need to provide some documentation to prove that you have no income.

PP: Uh, what kind of documentation would do that?

SS: Anything that proves you have no income.

PP: Okay, can you tell me where to get such a document?

SS: Now see here! If you aren't willing to cooperate, we'll just terminate your application right now.

PP: I'm trying, I just don't understand what it is you're asking for.

SS: It's simple, just something to prove that you have no income.

PP: Can I talk to someone else, please?

SS: No, you're assigned to me. What's your problem, anyway?

PP: I just don't know what you want.

SS: I don't want anything. You, on the other hand, need to provide those documents.

PP: Can you tell me what those documents are called?

SS: They don't have a name, wise guy. Just bring something that says you have no income!

PP: How about a letter from the 7-11, stating that I don't work for them?

SS: Get out.


*****************************


This is why so many people can't wait to be poor. It's just so much fun sprawling on the floor where we land while trying to pull ourselves up by our non-existent bootstraps. Of course, we wait to that until after reading the letter to the editor complaining about all us lazy good-for-nothings who get everything under the sun handed to us just for the asking. Stop, stop, the laughter is killing us.

[NEOhiodemocrat]

151. years ago I had to apply for food stamps

I took my one and two year old sons with me. One of them grabbed for a cloth pin animal knickknack on her desk. She said "next time get a babysitter for the kids". I was so mad, told her if I could afford a babysitter I wouldn't be there. Some people should not be in the jobs they are in no, no empathy.

[Gemini Cat]

196. You nailed it.

That's exactly how they treat the people they're supposed to help.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

74. I had a hellish relationship with my parents, the last ten years of their lives.

They kept saying, "Why can't you find a job? We paid for a damn good education for you."

I said, "I don't know. They don't care that I have 3 college degrees in 3 different fields."

They said, "There are jobs in the paper. Why don't you try those?"

I said, "I already called them. They want people with RECENT legal experience. Like I've forgotten everything I learned since I was at Mama's side while she was typing, and I was six years old and asking her, 'Mama, what does KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS mean? What does WHEREFORE PREMISES CONSIDERED mean? What does DEFENDANT PRAYS THAT PLAINTIFF GO HENCE WITHOUT DAY mean?'"

They said, "Why can't you pay your bills? Are you blowing money?"

I said, "Yeah, on luxuries like food and car insurance and electricity and gasoline."

I was literally beside myself because I felt like a failure. This started in about 1994. All they did was bitch about me not being able to pay my bills. Mother even said "You don't need a car. You can ride the bus." I said, "Well they don't have any jobs where the bus goes (in Houston)."

This went on for years. They eventually died so I didn't have to listen to that anymore. I still have not had a decent job in a decade and a half. I stopped looking a long time ago. Nobody gives a damn that I have a doctorate in law. None of the guys I went to law school with could lift a finger to give me a job, despite the fact that they were pulling down a million dollars a year in profits, because they were partners in big city law firms. They were too chickenshit to throw a crumb to anyone else.

I sometimes write angry things on letters my law school sends me, asking for money for scholarships.

[Q3JR4]

80. Thank you for this post.

I've been looking for a real job since I graduated with my degree in physics on December of 2006.

I was recently hired to be a caregiver for the mother of a friend of mine. My rent, cable, internet, power, and food bill are all taken care of. That's the only reason I'm not living in a box somewhere.

I do remember the times right after I got my B.S. degree. I barely made enough money to pay my student loan, credit card payment, rent, and power bill. I had to sell my plasma to get enough money for food.

Q3JR4.
All power to the people.

[mackerel]

82. Thank you William Pitt you covered it all.

Accept our Coinstar is right up front at the grocery store next to the cash register. Lately I've noticed a small line.

[madamesilverspurs]

103. Yup.

I went back to school in '93, graduated in '96. After having no success in finding work with diploma in hand, I went to work for a temp agency. In the course of seeking something permanent, I ran into all kinds of excuses and attitudes. Before going back to school it was always something like "we need someone who can lift 50 pounds" (I'm disabled, so that clearly wasn't going to happen). I'd hoped that the degree would widen the possibilities. What got 'widened', in reality, was the plethora of reasons for not hiring me: too limited (because of disability), too old (graduated at 48), still female; but the one that surprised me the most -- "Gee, if you'd only come to me a couple of years ago...but now you're over-qualified."

[Brucie Kibbutz]

116. selling plasma for grocery money

I know what that's like. And I hate needles!

[NanceGreggs]

83. Excellent piece of writing ...

... as though I'd ever expect anything less than excellence coming from you.

:patriot:

[Luciferous]

84. Great post

I've been there before, and pray I'm never there again. Thanks for sharing.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

87. Being broke does leave you feeling broken down and beaten.

Even when you did everything right and still you're struggling to hold things together. The shame of being in the situation you're in often causes you to send yourself into a sort of self imposed exile. A dark and lonely place filled with nothing but our own self-loathing, fear and misery. It's no surprise we have higher suicide rates during times of decreased employment.

It's always good to be reminded that you're not the only.

[Tigress DEM]

88. Ah Will, still the master at keeping it real. nt just applause

:applause:

[Urban Prairie]

89. Electricity shutoff two days ago

Being broke is having five consecutive years of bad luck in the forms of layoff, (wife) injury ( badly fractured foot-me),life-threatening illnesses,(twice-me) auto accident(me), and ultimately another job loss (from outsourcing-wife) and permanent disability (me), all of which finally brought us down to foreclosure, credit card defaults, unpaid hospital bills, car repossessions and eventually eviction from our home a year and a half ago. Our neighbor, who lives in the condo below the one that we are presently renting from my wife's cousin, is allowing us to "borrow" electricity with an extension cord. The electric range is useless, as is the microwave over the top of it, that blew a fuse internally two months ago.

The furnace will not switch on w/o electricity, even though we are paid up and current with our gas provider (who still sends us monthly bills w/ a shutoff notice) We owe the electric company over 1,500.00 and with my meager disability check and my wife's 12 hr/wk PT minimum-wage job that she finally got a few months ago, it is very unlikely that we will be able to pay it and restore service anytime soon, and no, the utility informed us that they will not restore service or take into account my disability, since we never officially notified them that we moved in here. The power was on when we moved in, and I owed them $500.00 on an old electric bill from our foreclosed home before we were evicted from it. (It costs $$$ to move quickly, esp. w/o personal transportation) My disability check barely covers our food, rent, heat, and water, as well as both of our doctor bill$ and pre$cription$, so we have run out of money by the third week every month since we moved in here, and there is always some unusual expense popping up. I gave my neighbor a desktop computer, in exchange for sharing his wi-fi connection, so I still have internet access for now, using my ancient & crappy laptop.

We have no telephone other than a cheap emergency prepaid cellphone, and a bunch of one-time semi-valuable and rare collectible stuff I have in cheap paid storage that I planned to sell online until the damned economy completely tanked here early last year. Just can't get a break, but I know that there are many who are FAR worse off than us, or soon will be.

[MercutioATC]

99. Do you have the ability to buy/borrow a small generator?

It's an incredibly imperfect solution, but it would keep the furnace powered. This time of year is still a little cold for no furnace in Michigan.

[Urban Prairie]

112. Actually it isn't too cold here, in the 50s during the day now

And just a little uncomfortably cool for my wife. I hate heat and humidity but don't mind the slight chill in the condo, though, I just hope that I can find a way to pay that damned electric bill by June or so, or it will get quite hot inside.

Guess we're lucky that they didn't shut us off in January. I doubt if the anal-retentive condo association would let us run a noisy generator on the balcony for long. Kind of makes me feel like we are squatters with no electrical service. I was worried about finding an apartment to rent with our credit in the crapper, and homes were too high priced here to rent, but my wife's cousin bailed us out.

I can't feel bad for being broke all the time now, as it isn't like these are boom times in the US. I know more about what is going on in the country than my wife, and I get a bit upset when she complains about our situation, she just doesn't understand what is going on all that well, even when I explain how many others are much worse off than we are.

[upi402]

126. These stories need to be told

All I read in papers in previous Reagan, Bush1, Bush2 recessions- was how we need to prop business up and cull the parasitic welfare scum. So even Clinton gutted welfare and brought us NAFTA. We are invisible and do not matter unless we force them. We have to force them now. Obama doesn't seemt to be doing anything different than the last 28 years than lead to this.

[defendandprotect]

95. Loved that Obama referred to "Reagan's Homeless" last night in his speech . . .!!!

Because several very old, very bad ideas are going broke, and taking the lot of us along for the ride down the chute

Though capitalism is certainly an old and bad idea, we had it somewhat contained with
the New Deal regulations/laws. As the founders pointed out we needed the Bill of Rights
...."because not all men are honest men." Well, those dishonest men set us back on the
road to national disaster because of their greed. Not to mention Bush's warmongering/
imperialism and tax cuts for the rich which helped bankrupt the Treasury and the States,
Cities and local governments.
We need to reinstate progressive taxation -- back to the Eisenhower years, or better!

Additionally, we have to readjust the proverty-guidelines which are ridiculous.

And, no one making Minimum Wage should be paying any taxes at all -- unless we adjust the
Minimum Wage to $25.00 an hour.

Finally, Congress should suspend it's own health care coverage which we pay for until we
all are covered by a Single Payer Health Plan. And, it should be Single Payer . . . as
former Gov. Howard Dean pointed out last week, Single Payer would have cost Vermont only
1/3rd of what the current privatized plan costs!!!

Feingold is also right about Congress needing to suspend their right to raise their own
salaries whenever they feel like it. Let's put that up to a public vote and see what
happens!!!

It's almost 30 years since Reagan gave us homelessness in America.
Homelessness and Poverty should be at the top of the list even before National Health Care --
and that should be No. 1. Oh, yeah -- end these wars!!!

Meanwhile, it's impossible to sufficiently acknowledge the pain and suffering of the many
going thru this now. We can think we understand what's being explained to us but we
know it's tougher even than what we're hearing.

[Brucie Kibbutz]

117. Ever thought about running for office?

We know Republicans don't care but it seems like most Democrats in Washington have decided to ignore the economic disparity in America as well. We need people like you calling the shots.

[defendandprotect]

120. Yes --

and I have in very minor ways -- with Greens twice --
fascinating experiences.

and as a delegate for Jerry Brown was on ticket.

And, thank you -- flattering.

But with Democrats, sadly, it was all about $$.

My sister had same experience in Boston -- she was being asked to run.

Neither one of us, of course, wanted the responsibility of all that, but we tried.

Democrats can ignore us because we have no leverage over them. When corporations/
elites give politicians money, they obviously have expections which they ensure are
delivered.

Of course, what lobbyists/corporations do should be illegal!


:)

PS: Keep in mind what Howard Zinn says -- that being in office doesn't create change.
That citizens acting together is what does it. In the case of the "sit-in's," which
he referred to, they were very young people -- very courageous. Populist movement ...
farmers. Abolitionists . . . Suffragists. You know, I've always been amazed that no
one has organized welfare mothers, for instance. The majority of those on welfare have
been white women with children. How about organizing the unemployed? The homeless?
All those who have to look for food banks, use food stamps. All those without health care!

[Brucie Kibbutz]

125. thanks for the info

much appreciated :hi:

[raccoon]

148. Excellent PS. nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

183. Actually, Welfare Rights Organizations used to exist

Part of the Poverty Law Centers/Legal Aid , in the 70's.
I was a paralegal and WRO activist back then.

then fudning was cut under Nixon and all but disappeared after that.
And protesting under the Bush Regime was obviously not going to work.

So,,we are back to square one, again.

[nichomachus]

146. Obama should be careful about that

With most of these wingnuts, you're better off questioning the divinity of Jesus than questioning the divinity of Ray-Gun. They may budge on the Jesus thing, but the Almighty Ray-Gun -- never!

[Catherine Vincent]

213. President Obama mentioned Reagan and homelessness?

Oh man! The repukes will hate him for sure now.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

97. lump in my throat...

I hate to see us all suffering..I wish for everyone's happiness.

I guess all any of us can do is our best, suffer what there is to suffer, enjoy what there is to enjoy....through it all, life pulses and changes.....

I don't know, I'm no poet.

:grouphug:

[Lucky Luciano]

100. TD Bank is open 7 days a week and they

have free coin counters.

No reason to use Coinstar if you have a TD Bank.

[libodem]

101. My mom was born in 1928

'She turned 80 last year in August. She tells a story about being a little girl telling her mom and dad about being 'broke'. The Depression must have been well under way by the time she could talk. "My shoes is broke, my dresses is broke, my panties is broke".

[Rosa Luxemburg]

105. I had to sell all my albums (the old 12" LP records) and heirlooms once

it was sad to see them go.

No doubt pawn shops will do well now?

[winyanstaz]

109. Its not bad ideas to blame...it's the ones that KNEW

what they were doing was wrong and did it anyway.

[nvme]

115. did you notice

how dirty your hands get when you roll it all up? something to be said bout our filthy money.

[pacalo]

122. I've been in the habit of saving spare change since the '80s.

It began when I seemed to be picking up change off the bedroom floor & out of the clothes dryer. I began putting the coins in a jar, but through the years I began adding to it spare change from Coke machines & miscellaneous shopping.

I've generally cashed the coins in at my bank (at no charge) when the amount was around $500, but at one point in the 90s I cashed in about $1,200, which we used on a trip to Disney World.

It's a great way to save, but it requires patience.

I loved your essay!

[Oldtimeralso]

123. Being Broke Means ...can't make the car payment

Hell I've never been able to afford a car that anyone would let me make payments on. A new car to me is one with 100,000 miles on it and ive drive a few to 250,000 in my life, and yes all American cars. I've been counting pennies since Nixonomics (High Inflation for you youngsters)never mind reaganomics and in the Little Bush years had to be a permanent disability to bring me down. Just remember that if you ain't got nothing you ain't got nothing to lose.

[Bonobo]

124. It also means your teeth hurt... nt

[Withywindle]

127. Being broke is

dreading signs of spring that you should be celebrating, because you know that in your state, the gas and electric companies aren't allowed to cut you off outright in winter, but as soon as spring comes, all bets are off, and they may not give you another payment plan this time.... :(

[mb7588a]

129. Thanks for the reminder. not.

...Though there has never been a better time to be an overachieving graduate student.

[leftofthedial]

130. becoming broke = becoming invisible

here in Murka.


Nice work Mr. Pitt.

[BobTheSubgenius]

131. Another one into the upper deck, Mr. Pitt.

Easy to read, but hard to stomach.....know what I mean?

I always thought we'd wake up from the pipe dream, but I didn't think it would be so sudden. I've never been extravagant, even during the relatively brief periods when I made way more money than I needed. I think it's going to turn out to have been a valuable dress rehearsal.

[SeattleGirl]

132. Thank you, Will

Being broke also means not answering the phone, because more likely than not, the person at the other end of the line isn't a friend or family member; it's a bill collector, calling to ask for money you just don't have. That's not okay with them, though. They threaten you, they call you names, they yell at you, and they make you feel like you are the lowest form of scum on the face of the earth.

Been there, done that. And constantly felt sick and scared and angry, because these people have NO empathy, NO sympathy, and they all act as if the money you owe the XYZ Company is money personally owed to that person on the other end of your telephone line. Once upon a time, I actually had a person from the utility company demand that I pay her "her" money. I asked for her supervisor; she was even worse.

Being broke means that those in power feel ever-so-free to take out all their aggressions on you, to kick you to the curb and then spit on you, kick you, and burn you with cigarettes, just because they can.

Being broke means that those in power really show you how much they don't give a fucking shit about you.

In this country, if you don't have wealth, you don't have worth.

[Laelth]

190. Insightful. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[griz2008]

133. Been broke, broke again...

I've been to a welfare office more than a few times in my life, and it took a five year death march to get my SSDI after 25 years of destroying my body just trying to make a living in this world.
I've done really well, and I've fallen on my butt too.

But one thing I remember clearly is after my husband passed away, and my family just couldn't take me and my son in, the welfare told us to essentially leave town (read: go away and die)and I had to appeal while trying to live in my car. in october. in Nebraska.

So, we just sat in the damned office until they either called the cops or helped us somehow.
Then we got the runaraound, promised a place to stay and a temporary room, then that was taken away after a few days (they decided we weren't suitable candidates for that program.. can I say 'what a bitch'?)
and this was all 6 years before my son forced me to apply for social security disability after I came home incapacitated (I had to take the whole day's medication to make it through a shift, then come home and cry all night.. only months after the two losses of my husband and mom)

THEN they cut off my general medical assistance, claiming that, under Subsection Made Up BS (seriously, we looked online at the policy book and no such policy listed)that my son was a year to young to be considered an adult, BUT at the SAME TIME too OLD to be considered a child (and the only source of support monetarily for us) so we weren't eligible for diddly squat, raising my medical costs to some $900 a month, which is impossible to come up with at the area's top wages (at the time about $10, although my son was too young to get that kind of job) AND pay rent, utilities and food.

BUT-- we fought and did what we had to do, and were even homeless a few times more, until today, with a broken economy and my son about 5 years behind on his education----

WE HAVE HOPE.

All we have to do is stand together, whether you live in a tent or an apartment or on a farm, rich, poor or otherwise, WE CAN CHANGE THIS HORRIBLE SYSTEM and stop the anarcho-capitalists-- woops, I mean 'republicans/libertarians'from bringing back indentured servitude, child labor and worse...

I'm not sure what to say now, but keep hope alive.

[Amelie]

134. No offense, but

You sound like someone who has never been broke. Really broke. Coinstar? Cable? TUITION? "Barely have enough for a slice at the local pizza shop"? WTF?

Sorry, you don't know nuttin bout hard knocks. Suit on; flame away.

[fasttense]

139. So tell us Amelie.

Tell us what it is like to be Really broke. Tell us about hard knocks.

By the way, I was listening to an old woman talk about the 1st Republicon Great Depression, when she was a little girl. She said the hardest part was not having enough to eat. She also said there were days they never got out of bed because it was so cold in the house and it was warmer to stay under the covers.

[Amelie]

154. Thank god, I don't know directly

But from what I've seen, food and shelter are definitely high on the list, as your friend clearly knows. But, getting familiar with soup kitchen schedules, having plumbing that works, a roof that doesn't leak, shoes for everyone (I've seen families share shoes), a place for everyone to sleep; hell, just a rodent-free place to sleep.

Quite frankly, not having tuition money and crying about not being able to buy a slice of pizza sounds like the complaints of a rich kid who ran out of walking around money.

[dixiegrrrrl]

186. Being poor is having someone pass judgement on you

because you are not "poor enough" by their standards.

[WilliamPitt]

192. Gotta love it.

:eyes:

[Amelie]

211. Pockets stopped jinglin?

Must suck to have to give up Starbucks.

[PatSeg]

208. Reminds me of an obscure old movie from the '60's

Jack Lemmon, Peter Falk, and Elaine May were arguing over who had been the poorest, each trying to up the others until the stories became ridiculous; "Well, you think that was bad, we had to eat used coffee grounds!" Just paraphrasing, but that scene from an otherwise forgettable movie has stayed with me all these years. I've known people who have done this as if it was a contest.

[Amelie]

Four Yorkshiremen

John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Marty Feldman and Tim Taylor. And it is hysterical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MtKNLfhT6M&feature=related

[PatSeg]

212. That's hysterical!

Very similar to the movie I was remembering ("Luv"). As a culture we are competitive about everything, even the bad crap.

[Amelie]

209. Oh good grief

If you can read my post from underneath your upturned nose, you'll see I said nothing of the sort. Read through the thread for some real examples of struggle. Using a coinstar machine, whining about pizza and not having a dime for tuition aren't among them.

[Ms. Toad]

141. As someone who has never been poor,

that was my reaction - but it was not my place to say. Glad you did.

[FloridaJudy]

135. Being broke is discovering

That the bus fare has gone up to $1.50 each way, and asking yourself "Do I really, really need to vote today?" And after you scrounge up the $3.00 for the fare, getting really, really ticked to discover your apartment is outside the city limits and you're not even eligible.

It's not buying your antidepressants this month - even if they're the cheapest ones on the market - so you can afford generic kibble for the dog, because god knows it's not her fault you're out of work.

It's wondering just how much longer the DSL will stay connected, because you need the Internet to apply for jobs, and your bill is way overdue. It's wondering just how the hell you'll get to a job interview, since the car has a dead battery and you can't afford to replace it. But it probably doesn't matter, since you haven't even gotten an interview in months, though you're sending out at least five applications a day.

Yes, I'm there. And it really, really stinks.

[bethdoc]

143. My Grandmother who lived during the Great Depression...

Back when my Grandma was alive she would tell me stories about how she survived being broke. She had 3 children to feed all under the age of 10, and her husband was out of work. Back then the government would give them flour and milk every once in a while (I wish she was still alive so that I could get the details). She said she had a coffee can that she kept the waste grease from cooking in (god only knows how old that grease was). She would then take a little bit of grease and some milk and make a gravy of sorts, and then use the flour to make biscuits. And that would be dinner. "Biscuits" and "gravy". She raised 3 children during that time. I don't know how she did it. She and her family endured.

I do know that her husband was finally offered a job by a local man to do odd jobs. She spoke like that man was an angel from heaven. She praised him and 60 years later would still get a tear in her eye when she spoke of him.

[susanna]

173. That's how my grandma got her kids through, too.

They were dirt-poor in Alabama in the 30s and 40s. I learned how to make that gravy (and biscuits) at grandma's side as a young girl. I still keep my bacon grease like she did. She also made her own buttermilk with a small carton of store-bought mixed with reconstituted dried milk, set to clabber overnight. I remember thinking she could make anything. She set a wonderful example for me, looking back. I always think of her fortitude every time I make biscuits and flour gravy, and I do make it; mostly as a reminder to myself of how lucky I have been.

They moved to Michigan and grandpa got a job in the auto industry here, so the second half of their life was far more comfortable. But she never forgot, and I am thankful for her and those valuable lessons. She was also the person who taught me to grow my own vegetables, no matter how small my yard. I miss her a lot. She was one strong lady!

[LeftHander]

145. The teenager keeps cleaning out the home bank account....

The First National Bank of Sofa....

I still have a account at the Under the Car Seat branch.


Seriously I remember a time when my then Wife and toddler daughter were well in the poverty....

We got desperate and scared we emptied the change jug and junk drawer, dug through chair, box, nook and cranny and found every last penny. The first time we did it we got about $200...($12 from the sofa alone...seems it was quite a quarter trap.)

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

147. The eighties were like this for me

I acutely remember mailboxaphobia and the horror of the ringing telephone. I absolutely adored Sundays, the only day I could really and truly relax, because there was no mail and no dunning phonecalls, and electricity and phone were never ever cut off on Sunday.

I used to say, "Nothing bad ever happens on Sunday."

[TomClash]

150. Outstanding

The quiet fortitude of the poor always amazes me. If that were me, I'd become a violent revolutionary instantly.

[shagsak]

152. I used to be broke

And can attest that everything written is true. I still sometimes let the mail go days (sometimes weeks) without checking it - just because of the memories. I will never forget being broke, it changed me forever.

And I (along with most everyone else here) will always be a democrat who pulls for those out there that are still broke. Fighting the fight behind the scenes wherever the broke are being neglected and taken advantage of. You are not alone.

[DS1]

153. My new bank offers a coin counter with no service charge

Imagine that!

[NNN0LHI]

156. My bank gives away high quality different flavored coffees and hot chocolate now

I was in there yesterday and tried the hot chocolate and it was great. I can't wait to go back.

Don

[DS1]

158. Yes

Ours has those coffee makers where you drop the little container in the thingy and it pokes a hole through both sides and brews it right there.

I love those machines.

[mdmc]

155. Being broke means never using coin star

I deposit change into my checking account. Most of the time it is a dollar and change, but sometimes I deposit as little as 56 cents.

Coinstar charges a fee. Broke people can't waste cash on fees.

My bank wants me to use my debit card as cash (and "charges" me $6 buck if I don't use my debit card 5 times per month).

I make 5 individual gas transactions as I pay at the pump. Each one for $1.11.

Done.

I guess the worst part is most broke Americans would fit into the top 10% of wage earners, worldwide.

To many in the world the inability to pay a car loan, or mortgage, is a luxury.

[shesaidshesaid]

178. LOL- I have been going back and forth about using Coinstar...(I have a checking account

and in the past have had the tellers convert my change, but paying 8% may just be worth the hassle and looks you get when you stroll in with that jar...)

[pipi_k]

159. I remember what it was like to be broke in the 70s

While married to my first husband and having stuff repossessed.

After we separated and I was living on my own with two small kids, getting welfare, trying to pay rent ($115 per month), buy food that wasn't included in the monthly allotment of government freebies (powdered milk, giant blocks of cheese, mystery meat in a can, etc), pay for heat, clothing, etc. on $234 per month. Hubby number one was supposed to send child support payments but never did.

I would save empty boxes and leave them in my pantry so if anyone came to the house it would look like we had food. Even poor people have pride...

When I met the guy who would be my second husband, he caught onto my "game", and felt so bad he bought me and the kids groceries.

He was an alcoholic, but somehow it didn't matter to me as long as there was someone who could take care of my kids. What a joke that was. He drank his paycheck away down at the corner bar, and after the money was gone he just put the drinks on his "tab", which had to be paid the next week. There were times when I had to scrape up change, take the kids, and walk down to the local A & P to buy macaroni and cheese for their dinner because there was nothing in the house and he was still in the bar.

One day I ended up pawning my sewing machine so he could have gas money to go up to his favorite bar and hit his friends up for money to pay the telephone bill before it got shut off.

I bought my, and kids', clothing at Salvation Army and Goodwill stores, and although they never said anything to me, they were ashamed to be seen wearing secondhand stuff. My son confessed to me, years later, that he would put the "ugly" pants on over a pair of jeans that he must have worn every day for a month without their being washed...he would leave the house wearing the "ugly" pants, and then take them off and hide them in the doghouse that some neighbors had in their yard. After school, he would come through that yard and put the "ugly" pants back on again over the jeans.

Didn't have a clothes washer, and whenever the car we had broke down and I couldn't get to the laundromat, or there weren't enough quarters, I did laundry in the bathtub.

And I'm very familiar with the challenges of living with cockroaches after the landlord of a six family tenement (all we could afford at the time) we were living in waited until the entire building got infested with them (starting at the third floor and working their way down to us on the first floor) before doing anything about it even though all the residents complained for months. People just haven't lived until they've had the thrill of having cockroaches jumping off the kitchen light fixtures straight into their dinner plates, or almost swallowing a cockroach that climbed into a bedside glass of water and drowned.

Anyway, I've come a long way since those days, and I don't ever want to forget them lest I fail to appreciate what I have now...

Compared to how I lived back then, I'm rich beyond words today...

[Liberty Belle]

162. Good piece, Will. Our salvation has been learning how to barter.

I have a start-up nonprofit news publication (www.eastcountymagazine.org). We are bartering for basic needs. I just got a couple thousand dollars worth of repairs to my car. The beauty of it is that giving away ad space on our site costs almost nothing, but the person receiving the ad is getting valuable exposure. So even though we're not profitable enough for me to draw an editors' salary, we can get by on a lot less money. I've had to. Freelance writing jobs have dried up as publishers have gone under. But we'll get through this, thanks to bartering and a bit of cash coming in from other sources. We've got a garden and fruit trees, so we won't starve.

The kids' tuition is impossible right now so our daughter's back in community college, moving home, taking fewer courses and working two jobs. For a cute coed finding work seems much easier; she will be driving a tour bus at the zoo this summer and also working as a financial aid ambassador at the college. Our oldest, the engineering student and valedictorian from his high school, though is having a tough go - no job offers yet, and he's a UC Berkeley wiz kid. Tough, tough going.

They say in this economy that they only way to succeed is not to look for a job, but to create your own. The people I'm seeing who are succeeding now are doing just that--folks in sales or marketing, PR. I may be back to political consulting soon, a past income source, if other writing doesn't pay off.

You're smart and resourceful; I know you'll land on your feet when this is all through. Times are scary. It all makes me think of the stories Mom told about being raised on a farm during the depression, going hungry and shoeless for years on end. They grew everything they needed except coffee and sugar, and often did without those. She walked the proverbial 3 miles to school, with holes in her only pair of shoes, wearing out-grown, hand-me-down clothes. My mom was born on the farm, at home, and my grandparents paid the doctor with 3 chickens.

But one thing has changed. People, even in business, were kind back then. In small towns people knew and trusted each other, even the local banker and the local farmers. My Grandpa couldn't make the mortgage payments. So he went to the bank, and they helped him out, gave him more time, lowered the payments. Today they wouldn't foreclosed in a heartbeat.

[marions ghost]

194. Yes it's time to get creative

if one has talents that can be marketed directly.

I don't get much out of "Grandma made it through the Great Depression" stories however. These days as you say, it is much harder for people to make it through than in those days. A lot of people can never grow their own food, or expect help from neighbors, or get extensions on debts.

[dixiegrrrrl]

163. Being broke means giving your 2 young sons to your employed ex-husband

because you can't afford to feed them.

It was the hardest decision I ever had to make, in 1974.
Years later, we are all fine with the outcome. He is a great father.

I spent 6 years living hand to mouth while trying to get an education that would provide a decent job.

How ironic, these days, when jobs are sent off shore, employers use workers like replaceable cogs, and we have essentially been dragged back to the 1900's in terms of worker rights.

[Cetacea]

164. Well done, Will. n/t

[TwilightGardener]

166. When my husband and I were younger and newly married, we went

to buy stamps at the post office one evening--we were down to our last $30 bucks or so, and payday was still almost a week away. My husband had enough change to buy a few stamps to mail our bills, but couldn't get the single-stamp dispenser to work. All he had left was a twenty dollar bill, so he pulled it out, and in an apparent brain fart, put it into the stamp vending machine that sold entire books of stamps, and bought twenty dollars worth of stamps. So now we only had about ten bucks cash (plus some pocket change) to live on for the week. But plenty of stamps. Thank God there were no witnesses to my reaction when he got back into the car--it was a blowout marital brawl for the ages. We laugh about it now, but that level of "brokedom" is still pretty fresh in our memories.

[Time for change]

167. Thank you for this Will

I hope that some of the economists in the Obama administration get to see this -- and take it with the seriousness it deserves.

[RoseMead]

174. Thank you

I have lived through everything you describe, and am living with much of it still. Things get a little better, sometimes, for a while, but it never lasts. I think my husband got to work 6 months this time before being laid off.

For us, it is partly a regional problem: we live in one of the poorest states in the country. I vividly remember my high school english teacher telling the senior class that we all needed to leave West Virginia as soon as possible, because there was nothing here for us. I love where I live (I actually live in the neighborhood where I grew up), and I've fought to stay here. But the other day I brought up the subject of moving elsewhere to get work. It was the first time I've ever said that seriously, and it was painful.

Some aspects aren't so bad. I don't mind not having cable. And having a phone is inconvenient, but minor; sometimes we can put a few minutes on our convenience store cell phone. And I can walk down the block and use my husband's parents' phone. In fact, we went without phone and Internet for most of the summer and fall last year, and I walked to their house every day to check the news and do phone banking for the Obama campaign. At least it got me out of the house.

(Two true stories:

1. My dad is a Republican. When I told him I was planning to do calling for Obama, laughed and said, "You don't have a phone." I said, "Watch me." Then after a minute I added, "Maybe I'll use your phone."

2. I called for the campaign for months, and my husband and I went to the local campaign headquarters on Saturdays to volunteer. Many times we took the kids, especially the 6-year-old, who got a big kick out of the whole experience. On election day, I took both kids and went to vote, then I went to the headquarters and called voters for about six hours. I'd intended to stay until the polls closed, but around 7pm, my husband arrived and told me that our electric had been shut off. I had to leave at that point, because I'm one of those people who'd rather die than have people see me cry. But we did have a happy ending: our neighbor ran an extension cord from his apartment to our house. So we had one lamp and our portable TV working, and we got to watch the election results.)

So thanks. We are getting by, but it's hard, and it's nice to have that acknowledged. Thank you for reminding people they aren't going through this alone.

[susanna]

175. Excellent post, Will. Thanks so much for sharing it. n/t

[sarcasmo]

176. Coinstar Rocks.

[iamthebandfanman]

177. coinstar is a ripoff

local banks always change my change over to dollars for free...
my local coinstar charges a small fee, no thanks.

[mitchum]

204. See post 34

[Klukie]

179. Being broke quickly breaks the spirit..........

However knowing that you are not alone can provide much needed hope. Thanks for the great post.

[1776Forever]

182. I am right in line with you - Had to go to coin machine 3 times now in 6 mos. & filed bankruptcy.

We had to save up 3 months to pay for the bankruptcy. My husband and I are in our 60's and we are better off then some and we are grateful for what we have, but we would have loved to have found a job in Florida in the last 2 years so we could have paid our bills and kept our home. Our 40-year-old chronically ill son needed our help in 2005 so our savings were gone. We both have great references and experience and truly gave it 100% to find something, anything that would have saved our home. Being broke is the pits, but like you say we know we are lucky to have what we have. I count my blessings everyday.

Hugs!

:grouphug:

[bikebloke]

185. I used to know people who threw away change.

In their fantasy of being rich, they decided they were above small change. With hopeful schadenfreude, I wish after their make-believe world smashed upon the rocks, they'd remember what was tossed in the bin.

I used to spend all my change. Then as I biked more, a pocketful of change was a hindrance. So I started rolling coins. Then I changed banks and could use their machine for free. I'm about to change banks again, so it'll be back to rolling coins.

[Robeson]

189. You should forward this to Chuck "Santelli" Todd.

[Ticonderoga]

191. Being broke is being afraid to pass a little gas

because you're afraid of what might come out behind it...Oh wait....I'm confusing broke with old..sorry.

[LiberalEsto]

198. Damn good article, Will

The brokest I ever got was at age 18, when I passed out from hunger on the streets of New Brunswick NJ. This was in the summer of 1970 while I was working for Summer Mobilization Against the War. Usually I managed to cadge a slice of pizza or a donut in the Rutgers graduate student lounge, but that was a bad week. I couldn't find a job and was living on mulberries growing on campus trees. There wasn't really a home I could go back to.

I've been broke other times, rolling pennies to try and get the rent money together, or searching the neighborhoods on trash nights for a chair to sit on. But thank Goddess I haven't passed out from hunger for nearly 39 years.

[marions ghost]

200. My sister is doing some work

inventorying people in poverty. She says many who are poor now and eating at soup kitchens were making reasonably good money last year. These are typically younger people who are the first laid off. They are so despondent. It's a big shock. :mad: Of course the more that join this group maybe the more attention will be paid.

This "recession" will touch everybody except the obscenely (& undeservedly) rich.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

201. These days, when I find a paycheck in the mail

I find myself saying "Thank god...I can get my account balance over $100 again."

[Laura PourMeADrink]

205. thought about you last week. I was in Connecticut at the shore

and there was someone named William Pitt who had a real estate company - for sale signs everywhere.

Here is my "sign of the hard economic times" picture from New Orleans:

[handmade34]

206. Thanks for the essay... we are not alone

• Poverty is the worst form of violence. Gandhi
• The hopes of the Republic cannot forever tolerate either undeserved poverty or self-serving wealth. FDR
• It is not easy for men to rise whose qualities are thwarted by poverty. Juvenal
• Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime. Aristotle
• Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe. Frederick Douglass
• Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons. Woody Allen
• What is the matter with the poor is poverty; what is the matter with the rich is uselessness. George Bernard Shaw
• The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved. Mother Teresa
• Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more. Proverbs 31:6,7
• The problem with our beloved Country is that our necessities have become too luxurious and our luxuries too necessary. Small Farmer’s Journal


We are not alone, or at least we shouldn’t be or need to be. The power we have as people, together, is awesome. There is potentially great joy working together to help each other, to overcome. Bonds are formed, relationships strengthened.
So…. Can’t we find each other and help? Too Utopian, too different than what we are used to or from what we have been led to believe is the norm or too hard? What about co-ops and bartering and support for each other? I have said many times here and elsewhere is that Jesus’ only message was “Life is a Bitch, we just need to help each other out” We don’t need to listen and believe in all the hurrah, unregulated, free market, capitalistic, mumbo jumbo propaganda. I have also talked about here and elsewhere the awesome experience of being in the middle of a swarm of bees swirling, looking to find the right place to settle momentarily; that is what it is like to be with committed people working on a solution to a problem.
I have never used a coinstar, don’t understand the significance: It costs money. I grew up in poverty and have experienced being broke off and on all my life. Doesn’t seem to matter how hard I worked, or even how smart I worked, life happens and sometimes it was on my side and sometimes not. Doesn’t matter that I have a college degree and work experience. It doesn’t help that my parents were dirt poor and not even able to teach me wisely. I have a job and at some level I appreciate it, but I’m on the road 98% of the year and miss my family and have no sense of community. I get very angry, but I choose to do this job rather than be homeless. (edit for irony) I'm still homeless! but I have money to send home to the kids...
Being broke is emotionally and often physically exhausting. Being broke is embarrassing, humiliating and stigmatizing. It can also be freeing, but not often enough. It can mean stealing to make sure your kids have what they need. It is all of what people here have posted and more. It should never, ever mean disrespect for the poor or for ourselves.

[missingthebigdog]

207. What you can do to soften the blow. . . .

We are struggling ourselves right now; not for the first time, but I thought I would never be here again. I have worked SO hard to not have to worry about where the money will come from to keep everything on. I made some unfortunate career decisions when I finished law school, though, and am now desperately looking for a job. . .

We are lucky that my husband has stable employment in an industry that hasn't been too affected by the slowdown. We are also lucky to be, as he puts it, "a couple of minimum wage kids" who didn't overextend ourselves too much in the hysteria of the housing bubble, etc.

It may sound cliche, but it really is the little things that make a difference. So, if you are fortunate enough to not be relying on coinstar for bus fare, take a look around you and see what you can do. For example:

My neighbor's oldest son went to a temp agency, who said they would hire him if he had a pair of steel-toed boots. No money next door for the gas bill, let alone footwear. I put him in the car and took him to PayLess. It was the most rewarding $30.00 I have spent in a LONG time. Six weeks later, he was hired on permanently at the site that he was assigned to, and my neighbors had hot water again.

Plant a vegetable garden and distribute the harvest to those you know are in trouble. Fresh food is expensive, and it doesn't feel like charity when you say you have too much too eat it all yourself.

Make a habit of offering to run errands for your friends and neighbors. "Hey, I'm going to the grocery store- do you need me to pick up anything?" Sometimes, people have the funds to buy something they need, but not the means to get there. Also, it makes it much easier for the person to ask you for a ride, or to pick something up, if you have offered in the past.

If you are in a position to do so, offer to buy the things that a friend or neighbor is considering taking to the pawn shop. Pawn shops pay almost nothing for things.

If you are not in a position to buy things, but have the tools to sell on eBay, offer to do that.

A bag of school supplies has a huge impact on a family with school-age children.

Mow the neighbor's yard when you mow yours. Maybe they can't afford gas for the mower, maybe they are too depressed to mow. Making the yard look a little better can help with the outlook.

Offer to watch the kids. Couples who are having money trouble need time alone together, and it is the first thing that goes by the wayside.

Drop off pet food- anonymously if necessary. It is hard enough to keep your spirits up when things are so hard, without the trauma of having to give up a cherished pet.

We have to stick together and take care of one another to get through this. Do what you can.

[Phentex]

210. It can also lead to contempt for others...

the ones who aren't struggling and seem to take for granted every thing they have. They appear to be wasteful and self-centered. They throw money away on everyday nothing while you worry all the time about how you are going to eat. Other people really aren't doing this *to you* but it seems that way when you are poor.

Those days are long gone for me but I'll never forget them.

[dysfunctional press]

214. i always take my change to the bank, and i've never had to put it in sleeves, either...

coinstar is a joke and a rip-off for the boneheads that use it.

[Ticonderoga]

225. So, in reality

what you are saying is that if you lost your job and therefore no longer have a "bank account", which by the way is a requirement to have the bank "service" your change in their counter, then you are a bonehead?

[dysfunctional press]

227. if someone lost their job, why would they no longer have a bank account...?

unless...maybe...they're a bonehead? :shrug:

[Aviation Pro]

219. Being broke also reminds you that your general election vote....

...from 1980 on had severe consequences, regardless of whether you were smart enough to try and stave off the rapacious motherfuckers that have since made you broke or stupid enough to vote for those same motherfuckers.

And it didn't matter whether you were smart or stupid, both sets of votes ended up broke.

[Ellipsis]

230. " Being broke means knowing where all the gas stations are..."

Bwwahhhhh!


...measuring cash flow.



Know that one... and the gas gauge to lowest level of E.








Nice.

[datasuspect]

232. uh . . . coinstar machines are in the FRONT of the store

you just invalidated any claim of knowledge about being broke. in your first paragraph.

duh.

[lamp_shade]

233. Burning eyes here. Beautifully written Will.

[lgartzma]

235. Being Broke

Born in '43 to Depression era parents, Ronald Regan's philosophy was repugnant from the beginning. Ayn Rand was popular among my high school peers and Goldwater received my enthusiastic support when I was a Senior. But I grew up. I learned the difference between wishful idealism and reality. What "works" is bottom line. When the Republicans had to rely on Welfare Mothers as their opponent in order to pass their Ayn Rand philosophical measures, I knew it would not be long until the very people most fooled by the rhetoric would be broke, along with those who had not been. I planned for this perfect storm. Lived on my civil service salary and did not count my husband's income in the business world. Kept working--even after the baby came because I had the group insurance, seniority, and most income security. Did not improve my home except for earthquake repairs. I had also hoped I was wrong. But when two years ago the small business people my husband works with started wondering where their future customers would come from, I knew I was not. Most of America will live like I do from now on. I just hope we get the chance to do so. If congress can't turn this around, we may find ourselves not just broke but living in the '30's again--a time when my father used cardboard to repair his one pair of shoes and my mom learned to placed the end of each bar of soap in an oatmeal box so that they could be melted down for a new bar. Being broke may not be about loose change but about no change at all.

[bonnieS]

237. Depression

TCM just showed a great movie (Wild Boys of the Road) made in 1933 about the Depression. Two boys leave home so as not to be a burden to their (former) middle class parents who have lost their jobs. They ride the rails and encounter a girl dressed as a boy and the three of them try to get to Chicago, but are beaten back by the police. One of the boys loses a leg to a moving train. At the end they are arrested in New York after a series of nightmarish events. One of the boys says to the Judge "You have MONEY FOR THE BANKS, BUT NONE FOR US!" The Judge responds by offering compassionate solutions for the three of them (we have seen hundreds of young people in the same situation during the movie) and says "One day things will be better, your parents will have jobs, and you can go home."

Not said: then your grandchildren will have the same problems.

My mother says that one thing they did during the Depression to save money was to have "parties" where everyone brought one dish and there was a whole meal for a lot of people, and it served as entertainment and companionship at the same time.

[yewberry]

236. I've been poor. You know what sticks with me?

Being so, so sick, in the community clinic and handing over the 1963-series $5 bill that I got from my grampa to pay for antibiotics, then having the cashier call to me across the crowded room, "Oh, wait, I didn't realize you are homeless. You don't have to pay this." All heads turned.

Seeing people eat whatever they want and trying not to cry in public.

Knowing three different ways to stretch a can of tomato soup. (Add enough elbow mac, white beans, garlic, & water, and you can eat for a couple of days.)

Knowing when all of the free events in town are, but being too tired to get to them, or too short on bus fare to bother.

Paying the rent with the "overdraft protection," and what that means.

Trying to figure out how to use whatever is in the fridge when the power gets shut off.

Handwashing all of my clothes in the bathroom sink.

Shopping in the "back" section at the produce market. (Hint: it's where people buy vegetables for their horses.)

Trying to be glib when family asks about why my phone service was cut off.


Poor sucks.

[In_The_Wind]

238. Being broke (Bernard Madoff stole our money) means relying on HEEP

to stay warm. Going to a federally funded Extra Helpings food bank to stretch my food dollars. Cutting back on medications that have improved the quality of my life. Selling the car that uses the most gas and cost the highest insurance premium. Hoping that our mortgage forbearance will not run out before we can turn our finances around.




Oh ~ leave a message if you want to talk to me, I'm not answering the phone until the bill collectors stop calling every 15 minutes starting at 8 AM every blessed morning. They don't wake me since I've been up since 3:00 worrying about where we'll go if we lose the house. :scared: