I’ve always said there are two types of poverty: budget poverty, and systematic poverty.
Budget poverty is, I’m guessing, what you’re talking about. People purchasing luxuries and neglecting necessities. Those with the means to live comfortably, who spend far beyond that and get into trouble.
Systematic poverty is an issue that can’t be fixed with budgeting. It’s a complicated mess of socioeconomic factors, and here in the US, it seems to often stem from medical bills.
It’s fine to be frustrated with the former, but there are some people who don’t think the latter exist–that everyone in poverty is only there because they spend beyond their means and therefore poverty is a moral failure of the poor.
I’m going to drill a bit deeper on this because I feel sympathy for people who are mired in systemic poverty, and stray into budget poverty in impulsive attempts to experience something nice.
It’s the people who buy $50k vehicle they can’t afford because they want to “fit in” that I have no sympathy for. For me it’s not about Puritanical judgment over how tightly utilitarian someone ought to be, but whether or not someone went into poverty for the sake of conspicuous consumption.
I’ve always said there are two types of poverty: budget poverty, and systematic poverty.
Budget poverty is, I’m guessing, what you’re talking about. People purchasing luxuries and neglecting necessities. Those with the means to live comfortably, who spend far beyond that and get into trouble.
Systematic poverty is an issue that can’t be fixed with budgeting. It’s a complicated mess of socioeconomic factors, and here in the US, it seems to often stem from medical bills.
It’s fine to be frustrated with the former, but there are some people who don’t think the latter exist–that everyone in poverty is only there because they spend beyond their means and therefore poverty is a moral failure of the poor.
Don’t be those people.
I’m going to drill a bit deeper on this because I feel sympathy for people who are mired in systemic poverty, and stray into budget poverty in impulsive attempts to experience something nice.
It’s the people who buy $50k vehicle they can’t afford because they want to “fit in” that I have no sympathy for. For me it’s not about Puritanical judgment over how tightly utilitarian someone ought to be, but whether or not someone went into poverty for the sake of conspicuous consumption.
This is exactly what 99% of Lemmy needs to here, even if they’re too politicized to read the nuance in this post before downvoting