the new poor

[audrey_girl]

fyi:

from the NYT:

THE NEW POOR
Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/bu...ployed.html?hp

[shiny!]

Re: the new poor

I'm having trouble being entirely sympathetic. Her greatest poverty seems to be poverty of character. True, the economy is terrible and many people are suffering through no fault of their own, but still, she was earning $10,000 per month and only saved $24,000? She's too lazy or spoiled to learn how to cook pinto beans? Apparently it never occured to her or her family to live frugally and save up for hard times- things that normal working-class people used to do automatically. And she still doesn't seem to get it.

Our society has become perhaps fatally foolish and childish. Can people like her actually learn from their experiences, or are they too mentally lazy or dumbed-down to adapt? Deer in the headlights.

And lest anyone accuse me of being hard-hearted and insensitive to the poor, I cleaned houses for eight years in chronic sickness and pain, and I still continued to work. I lived on the brink of homelessness for four of those years and never expected any handouts from anyone. Jeez, I'm grouchy tonight!

[flintlock]

Re: the new poor

I have to agree on this also. Way too many people in their 50s and 60s with little or no savings. Long term unemployment can ruin anybody, but I personally have seen some ridiculous situations. Wake up people. Read up on history. The world changes. Be prepared.

The people I really feel for are the working poor. The ones who never had the chance to save much. They are getting creamed. I am staring to see a lot of violence on news stories where you can tell the situation was tense because of financial reasons. People are cracking. They don't have the family support like we used to have. People feel isolated.

[tsetsefly]

Re: the new poor

I'm having trouble being entirely sympathetic. Her greatest poverty seems to be poverty of character. True, the economy is terrible and many people are suffering through no fault of their own, but still, she was earning $10,000 per month and only saved $24,000? She's too lazy or spoiled to learn how to cook pinto beans? Apparently it never occured to her or her family to live frugally and save up for hard times- things that normal working-class people used to do automatically. And she still doesn't seem to get it.

Our society has become perhaps fatally foolish and childish. Can people like her actually learn from their experiences, or are they too mentally lazy or dumbed-down to adapt? Deer in the headlights.

And lest anyone accuse me of being hard-hearted and insensitive to the poor, I cleaned houses for eight years in chronic sickness and pain, and I still continued to work. I lived on the brink of homelessness for four of those years and never expected any handouts from anyone. Jeez, I'm grouchy tonight!

very true, but government has also set that moral hazard. They will bail you out if you make bad decisions.

[shiny!]

Re: the new poor

very true, but government has also set that moral hazard. They will bail you out if you make bad decisions.

Only if you allow it. I knew people who milked the system and I could have learned how, but I have too much pride. I've made plenty of decisions that seemed right at the time but turned out to have been bad, but my problems are mine to solve and nobody else's.

[Shakespear]

Re: the new poor

Our society has become perhaps fatally foolish and childish. Can people like her actually learn from their experiences, or are they too mentally lazy or dumbed-down to adapt? Deer in the headlights.

For many many people this is a NEW life experience and they will be forced to relearn something that probable their grandparents already knew

However the "moral hazard" argument apparatchiks are just plain vanilla Thieves ;)