Some feel entitled to have something ("I want it, I deserve it, I'm getting it, I don't care about consequences" - yes, I often hear that one). Some think they can afford it but can't ("oh, it's just $30/mo, and I've got $100/mo to spare" - and they do this 6 times). Some fall for fast-talk marketing ("look at this great-looking new $5000 sofa! for just $50/mo you can have it right now!" - no timeframe specified, same thing is $1500 down the street). Some just don't understand finances ("I can't be broke, my credit card still works"). Some are proving something ("I bought it just to convince myself I'm rich enough to" - yup, hear that one too). Some just trust it will work out ("I spend $150/day, my spouse takes care of it" - while he gets second & third job, leveraging finances to the breaking point, as she ignores his pleas to stop). All of it adds up to: you're poor because you're spending $4150 for a $1500 sofa you could have gotten off Craigslist for $100 and which you didn't need anyway. Ignorant, willful or malicious, outgo > income => poverty.
I keep thinking back to a moment of comprehension: I was repairing a poor family's sofa (gratis, because I care even though I'd only met them that day), wondering why it was damaged the way it was, when the tweenagers asked me for a sheet of plastic to cover the window they had just torn the screen out of (and presumably had prior broken the glass) - hit me that they were in the state they were in because they had as a way of life wantonly destroyed what they had.
Yes, some are poor because life dealt them a bad hand; don't conflate them with those who CHOOSE to be poor. And to the currently lead comment: I am empathetic, and continue to assist the poor - but empathy wears thin when people make stupid choices on a regular basis and blame those who merely fulfill their demands & desires.
Some feel entitled to have something ("I want it, I deserve it, I'm getting it, I don't care about consequences" - yes, I often hear that one). Some think they can afford it but can't ("oh, it's just $30/mo, and I've got $100/mo to spare" - and they do this 6 times). Some fall for fast-talk marketing ("look at this great-looking new $5000 sofa! for just $50/mo you can have it right now!" - no timeframe specified, same thing is $1500 down the street). Some just don't understand finances ("I can't be broke, my credit card still works"). Some are proving something ("I bought it just to convince myself I'm rich enough to" - yup, hear that one too). Some just trust it will work out ("I spend $150/day, my spouse takes care of it" - while he gets second & third job, leveraging finances to the breaking point, as she ignores his pleas to stop). All of it adds up to: you're poor because you're spending $4150 for a $1500 sofa you could have gotten off Craigslist for $100 and which you didn't need anyway. Ignorant, willful or malicious, outgo > income => poverty.
I keep thinking back to a moment of comprehension: I was repairing a poor family's sofa (gratis, because I care even though I'd only met them that day), wondering why it was damaged the way it was, when the tweenagers asked me for a sheet of plastic to cover the window they had just torn the screen out of (and presumably had prior broken the glass) - hit me that they were in the state they were in because they had as a way of life wantonly destroyed what they had.
Yes, some are poor because life dealt them a bad hand; don't conflate them with those who CHOOSE to be poor. And to the currently lead comment: I am empathetic, and continue to assist the poor - but empathy wears thin when people make stupid choices on a regular basis and blame those who merely fulfill their demands & desires.