For the record, caffeine-enhanced beauty products can reduce puffiness around the eyes and face (a lot of puff-reducing gels and eye ointments contain caffeine) because caffeine reduces swelling.
It's hard to stay off of, though, especailly in the winter. I fall off the wagon, and then climb back on, every few months. :)
A lot of cotton fabrics dry stiff - like jeans or certain t-shirts. I simply like the dryer more because it's the opportunity to get ALL of the dog hair out of my clothing.
My love affair with Walmart and low prices ended when Sam Walton died and his "buy American" campaign died with it. I may not be rich, but I refuse to shop there unless I absolutely, positively, after several failed tries to buy the product elsewhere. I refuse to give my family poisonous products and clothing made by other children. I'm not a "green freak" and actually quite frugal, but a gal's got to have her standards!
Young people don't NEED brand new furniture and dishes from Ikea to set up their first apartment. They can live with mismatched dishes and a box spring on the floor for a few months until they earn enough to pay cash for new things. What they -DO- need is a job with health benefits and a living wage so they can afford that apartment in the first place. Oh ... and I grew up making my own clothes as well and, though a chore ... it's not rocket science.
There -WAS- a balancing point between globalization and protectionism achieved in this country during the 1950's and 1960's where most people prospered and could afford nice things, but not every single nice thing advertised on 120 channels of cable television. People made choices based on what they could afford, not based on how many credit card offers they had. Industry was forced to compete with other countries, but lost tax revenues from lost jobs were offset by modest tariffs so there wasn't this constant sickening battle between funding the schools versus funding firemen. Tax codes were written so the biggest corporations didn't escape taxation by shifting costs overseas and also to discourage excessive executive compensation. Most people had jobs with benefits, pensions, and could afford to live in a modest, comfortable home in their local community, but they weren't "rich."
We need to return to that balancing point, or else our economy will collapse under the weight of the imbalance like a Ponzi scheme. Oops!!! I forgot. Isn't that what's happening right now? Only now it's not just "bridge" jobs that have been shipped overseas, but high-wage jobs like programmers, engineers, chemists, scientists, x-ray technicians, accountants, you name it. What goes around ... comes around.
I think the "shop local" phenomenon is a result of upper-middle classes who initially bought into "free trade" to fatten their 401K accounts are now seeing their jobs go overseas and realizing what happens to the farmer up the street and the hardware store owner can happen to them. All chickens come home to roost...
In the 1950's and 60's my father's income as an average tradesman could support himself, his wife, four children, pay for the house, the car, the summer vacation and the countless large and small necessities and little luxuries it took to be 'middle class.'
In the late 70's as a clerk in the service sector I could afford an apartment, pay the utilities with ease, have plenty of spending money for my pastimes, save for school and for holidays, and still have something left over.
This was on a part-time job, by the way.
Today, as a middle-aged man, over the past five years of full employment--admittedly at the lower end of the scale--over half my income has gone to rent alone for just ROOMS, and the rest is taken up by food and public transportation, such as it's called where I live.
And that's it. Period. The End. Note no budget for clothing, utilities, healthcare, spouses, children, rainy days, emergencies or insurrections. Wages minus rent and food equals absolute zero.
And this is fulltime work.
Even bearing in mind the difference in pay scale between such an occupation as my father practiced, and the jobs open to degree bearing, liberal educated good-for-littles as myself, one would think that if in one time a single man could pay for himself and a large family, a few years later another man could at least earn a proportional degree of comfort just for himself, but this is no longer the case.
So, despite the many fascinating accounts of how frugality can beat all (one is reminded of that scene in 'The Pink Panther' where Inspector Clouseau explains his wife's ability to buy mink comes from care with the housekeeping money) and dubious comparisons between living in Hickville, Arkansas and the Big Apple, or between life in the third world and in this one, I think the overwhelming conclusion to reach is that in North America we are on something of a downward trend, and no amount of cell phones, MP3 players and other digital toys are going to change the fact that for many people new shoes are now a luxury.
What is more disturbing--as demonstrated in some responses here--is how present society--which for much of the twentieth century had been fiercely egalitarian--now comes to think of working poverty as acceptable, as 'okay', as 'normal' and even 'serves them right'. And, needless to say, by most political figures, as highly desirable.
By the way, why has there been so little comment on the political factors behind the current cost and standard of living?
Thanks to Guest #49 for the great summary of the hidden costs of poverty. It describes many people's lives to a T.
HI guest... if your landlord is behind on property taxes then the county could sell the home if the taxes are late enough. It depends on the county, but usually if the taxes are defaulted for a few years they could sell the house at public auction if it still isn't foreclosed upon. In California if the taxes are 3 to 5 years in default then it's auctioned. See: http://www.sco.ca.gov/col/taxinfo/tcs/pubauctions/index.shtml
Since the consequences are pretty serious, it's a warning sign that your landlord may be defaulting on other bills soon if he or she is not paying taxes
Being out of debt is the best thing anyone can do, just the psychological boost, better health etc, no waking at night because of bills that are coming due.
Does your landlord being behind on their property taxes mean they are behind on their mortgage? I searched and their are no public notices of default or foreclosure for the property or my landlord.
I agree leslie as well, but my comment got deleted. As mentioned, water is a renewable resource. What if solar energy was used to treat the water, would you be ok with it then? What about people that use well water and dont treat their water at all for their plumbing?
This article was really informative, i guess that the word FREE doesn't always mean FREE! I am so suckered in by that work though, even more than the word Sale.
Nice to know that i shouldn't splash out everything i *think* I am getting a good deal. Thanks for the post!
I will add that the first thing to do is to get out of the *cycle of debt*, which is basically the cycle of spending beyond what you earn. To break this cycle, you need to bring your expenses below your income. This means making a budget and tracking your income and expenses and making sure that you keep your expenses below your income. This will mean some difficult behavioral changes, but once you have done this and have decided to stick with it you have broken the *cycle of debt*--you are now spending below your means.
Once you have done this, you are not out of the water yet because even though you are currently out of the *cycle of debt* it will take some time, perhaps years, to pay off your accrued debt balances. But you will notice an immediate improvement in the quality of your life once you are spending under your means.
A good practice I would recommend is to build up one month's worth of savings as a cushion, and only budget that money for your current expenses. In other words, only "spend" now what you earned last month. Put this month's income away for spending/budgeting in the coming month, and only spend/budget what you earned last month right now.
This also will make a huge difference. When you get to the point where you don't even need to make a bank deposit more than once a month because you're spending last month's income, your financial stress level will go down to a very very low level that you won't be used to. In fact, the low financial stress may create other problems--like what to do with your life and time now that you don't spend all your time worrying about the bills.
Now *THAT* is the kind of problem you *want* to have!
I do agree that "being out of debt" is not a lofty goal, and it really needs to have something more meaningful attached to it. Because, in reality, being out of debt is just a stepping stone in one's financial life, you have to go way beyond that to really be in a healthy financial state. So having some of the benefits of being out of debt in mind, and some loftier and more important goals, *is* very important, as you say.
For me, realizing how many life opportunities I have passed up because I felt insecure because of my a) debt and b) lack of savings was the kicker. I realized I wanted the freedom from worrying about starving or being homeless just because I lost my job, and the freedom to take advantage of opportunities and ideas I have by having enough money in reserve to take care of myself for at least a year without income. From there, I realized that I would need a heap of cash and/or investments to support myself when I am no longer able to work (older or retired). So meeting those cash reserve savings goals and getting on track for taking care of my older self have taken priority over any form of *unnecessary* spending at this point for me.
There is another aspect of emotions that I think is obvious once you look at the reasoning she uses for buying the dinner on credit: The thought process is, "I've been good, so I should have a reward."
Basically this is saying that there is an emotional reason for her spending, it is more about comfort than it is about needing the dinner.
You really want to get tot he point where the concept of "being good" has absolutely nothing to do with the concept of spending money, because really, whether you have been "good" or not is irrelevant. What's relevant is whether you are moving towards your goals, and any time you justify spending (translate: justify spending = deny reality) by saying you "deserve it" you have committed a non sequitur.
What she really deserves is to treat herself right by building some financial security and stop shortchanging and undermining herself financially.
If she stops spending on these unaffordable luxuries, she WILL be faced with looking at whatever emotion is behind her spending, which might not be pleasant at first. But if she can be aware of the emotions that she is feeling in the absence of her (out of control) spending habit, she will be on the first step to healing them. And once she has done that, she can begin to look forward to finding a greater meaning or goal in her life than simply "comfort today". I do think that in the end I have come full circle to the point you made in your post, which is that if she has no ability to constrain her spending, she likely she lacks a life goal that is meaningful to her. But I think that actually it is her trying to paper over this lack of meaning with her spending habits that is creating the overspending, and if she is willing to sit by herself and not spend for a while, she will begin to be able to see that gap and from there will be able to make a change for the better in her life.
Sometimes when a person is so exhausted that he/she needs a treat almost all the time, a health check-up may show that there is an underlying medical condition. That's what happened to me.
If you are renting a home or apartment and you are forced to move because the landlord couldn't pay the mortgage, you should contact an attorney. You may have a civil suit against your landlord. You won't have to pay rent from the time you are notified about the foreclosure and you may be able to get money for your moving expenses and other costs.
My husband and I were faithful to our cell phone carriers for over 2 years. After getting charged ridiculous amounts of extra fees and overages, we finally decided to cancel our subscriptions.
Now, we use the Boost Mobile unlimited chat plan. It is a pay as you go service, which is wonderful. 1$ a day for unlimited texts and mobile to mobile conversations (which is what my husband and I did all the time anyway).
This saved us hundreds of dollars a month.
We also switched our landline phone to Vonage, and instead of paying 112.00 bill each month, it's now 33.00. =]
I wanted to ensure my 10 & 11 year old understood the importance of giving and sharing. I have participated in the angel trees thru my company but had always chose a senior. I have a soft spot for the elderly. I was appalled when we went to pick our children to see many of them asking for PSP games, Wii games, PS3 games. Not the actual gaming unit, but the games. Meaning they already own these VERY expensive gaming units. I would expect a kid not knowing how much things cost to ask for the gaming unit, but to already have one and still be on the "needy" list. I felt the lesson of sharing was lost on my kids when they said we do not even have a PS3 or Wii. My children live a comfortable life and save their own allowance and or birthday money so they can purchase things that they really want. I told them that they would be purchasing the gift for the child they picked with their money. This experience did not help teach the lesson in sharing like I hoped. Next year - we will be helping but not via the Angel Program. Too bad too....
It seems to me that in our consumer driven society, too many people like your friend are trying to meet basic human needs, like respect, affection and love, with material "stuff." That, and emotional immaturity that demands instant gratification and "treats" because they have been "good." My depression-era parents must be rolling over in their graves.
so...poor people can't have fun...maybe he was given a snowmobile and he fixed it...maybe it's a form of transportation in the bad weather...lots of maybes...
on our local 'freecycle' I see lots of things "I" think are too greedyish...but I don't know the back story...and I have since learned ..things are not always as they appear (or sound). Merry Christmas.
Your story is exactly what I think of when we shop for our "church family."
I admit that we can't afford to buy the kids anything as spectacular as a Stingray bike - we're usualy shopping for 4 - 6 kids + parent(s) and maybe grandparents - but we try to buy mainly "name brand" toys (at least 3 per kid) and one nice, brand-new outfit. The food we buy is all "national brand" too since I figure the family we're buying for has had their fill of generic and store brand items even though we buy those for ourselves frequently and don't think that there is anything wrong w/ them.
I always thought that our family needed to "hear" that no matter what they've been through someone thinks they deserve "the good stuff."
Like I said - the toys we buy probably won't fulfill anyone's dream (no bikes, no iPods etc) but they're all at least brand new, fun items and we hope the kids (and their parents) do hear the message we're trying to deliver.
The rich man spends $300 on one pair of boots, he has them resoled every few years for a small fee and wears the boots for decades. The poor man buys poor quality shoes for $50 but has to replace them every six months. The shoes can not be repaired and do not last long. Guess who ended up spending more money on boots.
YES! This is one of my Pet Peeves About Poverty. There are so many "diseconomies" of poverty that I want to write a book about them.
Another one: How do you maximize home energy efficiency when you're renting, you have no long-term tenure, and you do not own any leasehold (energy-efficiency) improvements you make?
My mom has an analog tv i hooked the coverter box up
and i cant get any stations at all i bought an antenna hd
but it still wont work we live in the country what kind of antenna do i need
Julia
Yeah, I'm with you. However, I have high hopes that the internet will end up making a huge difference here.
Granted, at the moment it's mainly the affluent folks who can take full advantage. Environmental advocacy groups still print little pocket guides so that buyers can check and see which products are cruelty-free or lead-free or sustainable in one way or another. But that information is already available over the web, and soon pocket devices connected to the internet will be cheap enough that even the poor can have them. (At least, the poor in rich countries.)
Certain kinds of problems used to be intractable--for example, dividing up the production of Community Supported Agriculture any way other than equal shares. Now, though, computer power is so cheap and network connectivity so ubiquitous, it ought to be easy for every participant to go in and say, "I don't need any kohlrabi, I only need one pound of kale, but I want all the green beans I can get"--and have software take everyone's preferences and turn them into "fair" allocations where everyone gets as much of whatever they want as possible without depriving anyone else.
That, combined with local delivery, has the potential to solve a lot of the practical problems that poor people face. Not the basic problem of working too hard for too many hours in neighborhoods that lack basic services--but still a lot.
Good luck Patrick!
For the record, caffeine-enhanced beauty products can reduce puffiness around the eyes and face (a lot of puff-reducing gels and eye ointments contain caffeine) because caffeine reduces swelling.
It's hard to stay off of, though, especailly in the winter. I fall off the wagon, and then climb back on, every few months. :)
A lot of cotton fabrics dry stiff - like jeans or certain t-shirts. I simply like the dryer more because it's the opportunity to get ALL of the dog hair out of my clothing.
My love affair with Walmart and low prices ended when Sam Walton died and his "buy American" campaign died with it. I may not be rich, but I refuse to shop there unless I absolutely, positively, after several failed tries to buy the product elsewhere. I refuse to give my family poisonous products and clothing made by other children. I'm not a "green freak" and actually quite frugal, but a gal's got to have her standards!
Young people don't NEED brand new furniture and dishes from Ikea to set up their first apartment. They can live with mismatched dishes and a box spring on the floor for a few months until they earn enough to pay cash for new things. What they -DO- need is a job with health benefits and a living wage so they can afford that apartment in the first place. Oh ... and I grew up making my own clothes as well and, though a chore ... it's not rocket science.
There -WAS- a balancing point between globalization and protectionism achieved in this country during the 1950's and 1960's where most people prospered and could afford nice things, but not every single nice thing advertised on 120 channels of cable television. People made choices based on what they could afford, not based on how many credit card offers they had. Industry was forced to compete with other countries, but lost tax revenues from lost jobs were offset by modest tariffs so there wasn't this constant sickening battle between funding the schools versus funding firemen. Tax codes were written so the biggest corporations didn't escape taxation by shifting costs overseas and also to discourage excessive executive compensation. Most people had jobs with benefits, pensions, and could afford to live in a modest, comfortable home in their local community, but they weren't "rich."
We need to return to that balancing point, or else our economy will collapse under the weight of the imbalance like a Ponzi scheme. Oops!!! I forgot. Isn't that what's happening right now? Only now it's not just "bridge" jobs that have been shipped overseas, but high-wage jobs like programmers, engineers, chemists, scientists, x-ray technicians, accountants, you name it. What goes around ... comes around.
I think the "shop local" phenomenon is a result of upper-middle classes who initially bought into "free trade" to fatten their 401K accounts are now seeing their jobs go overseas and realizing what happens to the farmer up the street and the hardware store owner can happen to them. All chickens come home to roost...
At the risk of breathtaking oversimplification...
In the 1950's and 60's my father's income as an average tradesman could support himself, his wife, four children, pay for the house, the car, the summer vacation and the countless large and small necessities and little luxuries it took to be 'middle class.'
In the late 70's as a clerk in the service sector I could afford an apartment, pay the utilities with ease, have plenty of spending money for my pastimes, save for school and for holidays, and still have something left over.
This was on a part-time job, by the way.
Today, as a middle-aged man, over the past five years of full employment--admittedly at the lower end of the scale--over half my income has gone to rent alone for just ROOMS, and the rest is taken up by food and public transportation, such as it's called where I live.
And that's it. Period. The End. Note no budget for clothing, utilities, healthcare, spouses, children, rainy days, emergencies or insurrections. Wages minus rent and food equals absolute zero.
And this is fulltime work.
Even bearing in mind the difference in pay scale between such an occupation as my father practiced, and the jobs open to degree bearing, liberal educated good-for-littles as myself, one would think that if in one time a single man could pay for himself and a large family, a few years later another man could at least earn a proportional degree of comfort just for himself, but this is no longer the case.
So, despite the many fascinating accounts of how frugality can beat all (one is reminded of that scene in 'The Pink Panther' where Inspector Clouseau explains his wife's ability to buy mink comes from care with the housekeeping money) and dubious comparisons between living in Hickville, Arkansas and the Big Apple, or between life in the third world and in this one, I think the overwhelming conclusion to reach is that in North America we are on something of a downward trend, and no amount of cell phones, MP3 players and other digital toys are going to change the fact that for many people new shoes are now a luxury.
What is more disturbing--as demonstrated in some responses here--is how present society--which for much of the twentieth century had been fiercely egalitarian--now comes to think of working poverty as acceptable, as 'okay', as 'normal' and even 'serves them right'. And, needless to say, by most political figures, as highly desirable.
By the way, why has there been so little comment on the political factors behind the current cost and standard of living?
Thanks to Guest #49 for the great summary of the hidden costs of poverty. It describes many people's lives to a T.
Guest, Vancouver
HI guest... if your landlord is behind on property taxes then the county could sell the home if the taxes are late enough. It depends on the county, but usually if the taxes are defaulted for a few years they could sell the house at public auction if it still isn't foreclosed upon. In California if the taxes are 3 to 5 years in default then it's auctioned. See: http://www.sco.ca.gov/col/taxinfo/tcs/pubauctions/index.shtml
Since the consequences are pretty serious, it's a warning sign that your landlord may be defaulting on other bills soon if he or she is not paying taxes
Being out of debt is the best thing anyone can do, just the psychological boost, better health etc, no waking at night because of bills that are coming due.
Thank you! I've been there.
Margaret Garcia-Couoh
Does your landlord being behind on their property taxes mean they are behind on their mortgage? I searched and their are no public notices of default or foreclosure for the property or my landlord.
I just had a cartridge refilled, but they couldn't
reset low ink warning. Now its shut down because
black ink is out. Any body have an answer?
thanx
I agree leslie as well, but my comment got deleted. As mentioned, water is a renewable resource. What if solar energy was used to treat the water, would you be ok with it then? What about people that use well water and dont treat their water at all for their plumbing?
This article was really informative, i guess that the word FREE doesn't always mean FREE! I am so suckered in by that work though, even more than the word Sale.
Nice to know that i shouldn't splash out everything i *think* I am getting a good deal. Thanks for the post!
I will add that the first thing to do is to get out of the *cycle of debt*, which is basically the cycle of spending beyond what you earn. To break this cycle, you need to bring your expenses below your income. This means making a budget and tracking your income and expenses and making sure that you keep your expenses below your income. This will mean some difficult behavioral changes, but once you have done this and have decided to stick with it you have broken the *cycle of debt*--you are now spending below your means.
Once you have done this, you are not out of the water yet because even though you are currently out of the *cycle of debt* it will take some time, perhaps years, to pay off your accrued debt balances. But you will notice an immediate improvement in the quality of your life once you are spending under your means.
A good practice I would recommend is to build up one month's worth of savings as a cushion, and only budget that money for your current expenses. In other words, only "spend" now what you earned last month. Put this month's income away for spending/budgeting in the coming month, and only spend/budget what you earned last month right now.
This also will make a huge difference. When you get to the point where you don't even need to make a bank deposit more than once a month because you're spending last month's income, your financial stress level will go down to a very very low level that you won't be used to. In fact, the low financial stress may create other problems--like what to do with your life and time now that you don't spend all your time worrying about the bills.
Now *THAT* is the kind of problem you *want* to have!
I do agree that "being out of debt" is not a lofty goal, and it really needs to have something more meaningful attached to it. Because, in reality, being out of debt is just a stepping stone in one's financial life, you have to go way beyond that to really be in a healthy financial state. So having some of the benefits of being out of debt in mind, and some loftier and more important goals, *is* very important, as you say.
For me, realizing how many life opportunities I have passed up because I felt insecure because of my a) debt and b) lack of savings was the kicker. I realized I wanted the freedom from worrying about starving or being homeless just because I lost my job, and the freedom to take advantage of opportunities and ideas I have by having enough money in reserve to take care of myself for at least a year without income. From there, I realized that I would need a heap of cash and/or investments to support myself when I am no longer able to work (older or retired). So meeting those cash reserve savings goals and getting on track for taking care of my older self have taken priority over any form of *unnecessary* spending at this point for me.
There is another aspect of emotions that I think is obvious once you look at the reasoning she uses for buying the dinner on credit: The thought process is, "I've been good, so I should have a reward."
Basically this is saying that there is an emotional reason for her spending, it is more about comfort than it is about needing the dinner.
You really want to get tot he point where the concept of "being good" has absolutely nothing to do with the concept of spending money, because really, whether you have been "good" or not is irrelevant. What's relevant is whether you are moving towards your goals, and any time you justify spending (translate: justify spending = deny reality) by saying you "deserve it" you have committed a non sequitur.
What she really deserves is to treat herself right by building some financial security and stop shortchanging and undermining herself financially.
If she stops spending on these unaffordable luxuries, she WILL be faced with looking at whatever emotion is behind her spending, which might not be pleasant at first. But if she can be aware of the emotions that she is feeling in the absence of her (out of control) spending habit, she will be on the first step to healing them. And once she has done that, she can begin to look forward to finding a greater meaning or goal in her life than simply "comfort today". I do think that in the end I have come full circle to the point you made in your post, which is that if she has no ability to constrain her spending, she likely she lacks a life goal that is meaningful to her. But I think that actually it is her trying to paper over this lack of meaning with her spending habits that is creating the overspending, and if she is willing to sit by herself and not spend for a while, she will begin to be able to see that gap and from there will be able to make a change for the better in her life.
Sometimes when a person is so exhausted that he/she needs a treat almost all the time, a health check-up may show that there is an underlying medical condition. That's what happened to me.
Just a thought.
If you are renting a home or apartment and you are forced to move because the landlord couldn't pay the mortgage, you should contact an attorney. You may have a civil suit against your landlord. You won't have to pay rent from the time you are notified about the foreclosure and you may be able to get money for your moving expenses and other costs.
My husband and I were faithful to our cell phone carriers for over 2 years. After getting charged ridiculous amounts of extra fees and overages, we finally decided to cancel our subscriptions.
Now, we use the Boost Mobile unlimited chat plan. It is a pay as you go service, which is wonderful. 1$ a day for unlimited texts and mobile to mobile conversations (which is what my husband and I did all the time anyway).
This saved us hundreds of dollars a month.
We also switched our landline phone to Vonage, and instead of paying 112.00 bill each month, it's now 33.00. =]
I wanted to ensure my 10 & 11 year old understood the importance of giving and sharing. I have participated in the angel trees thru my company but had always chose a senior. I have a soft spot for the elderly. I was appalled when we went to pick our children to see many of them asking for PSP games, Wii games, PS3 games. Not the actual gaming unit, but the games. Meaning they already own these VERY expensive gaming units. I would expect a kid not knowing how much things cost to ask for the gaming unit, but to already have one and still be on the "needy" list. I felt the lesson of sharing was lost on my kids when they said we do not even have a PS3 or Wii. My children live a comfortable life and save their own allowance and or birthday money so they can purchase things that they really want. I told them that they would be purchasing the gift for the child they picked with their money. This experience did not help teach the lesson in sharing like I hoped. Next year - we will be helping but not via the Angel Program. Too bad too....
ice + hammer = M.C. vanilla
he he
Im just happy because I finally paid all my CC's debt.
It seems to me that in our consumer driven society, too many people like your friend are trying to meet basic human needs, like respect, affection and love, with material "stuff." That, and emotional immaturity that demands instant gratification and "treats" because they have been "good." My depression-era parents must be rolling over in their graves.
so...poor people can't have fun...maybe he was given a snowmobile and he fixed it...maybe it's a form of transportation in the bad weather...lots of maybes...
on our local 'freecycle' I see lots of things "I" think are too greedyish...but I don't know the back story...and I have since learned ..things are not always as they appear (or sound). Merry Christmas.
Your story is exactly what I think of when we shop for our "church family."
I admit that we can't afford to buy the kids anything as spectacular as a Stingray bike - we're usualy shopping for 4 - 6 kids + parent(s) and maybe grandparents - but we try to buy mainly "name brand" toys (at least 3 per kid) and one nice, brand-new outfit. The food we buy is all "national brand" too since I figure the family we're buying for has had their fill of generic and store brand items even though we buy those for ourselves frequently and don't think that there is anything wrong w/ them.
I always thought that our family needed to "hear" that no matter what they've been through someone thinks they deserve "the good stuff."
Like I said - the toys we buy probably won't fulfill anyone's dream (no bikes, no iPods etc) but they're all at least brand new, fun items and we hope the kids (and their parents) do hear the message we're trying to deliver.
lucille said:
The rich man spends $300 on one pair of boots, he has them resoled every few years for a small fee and wears the boots for decades. The poor man buys poor quality shoes for $50 but has to replace them every six months. The shoes can not be repaired and do not last long. Guess who ended up spending more money on boots.
YES! This is one of my Pet Peeves About Poverty. There are so many "diseconomies" of poverty that I want to write a book about them.
Another one: How do you maximize home energy efficiency when you're renting, you have no long-term tenure, and you do not own any leasehold (energy-efficiency) improvements you make?
My mom has an analog tv i hooked the coverter box up
and i cant get any stations at all i bought an antenna hd
but it still wont work we live in the country what kind of antenna do i need
Julia
@ heather:
Yeah, I'm with you. However, I have high hopes that the internet will end up making a huge difference here.
Granted, at the moment it's mainly the affluent folks who can take full advantage. Environmental advocacy groups still print little pocket guides so that buyers can check and see which products are cruelty-free or lead-free or sustainable in one way or another. But that information is already available over the web, and soon pocket devices connected to the internet will be cheap enough that even the poor can have them. (At least, the poor in rich countries.)
Certain kinds of problems used to be intractable--for example, dividing up the production of Community Supported Agriculture any way other than equal shares. Now, though, computer power is so cheap and network connectivity so ubiquitous, it ought to be easy for every participant to go in and say, "I don't need any kohlrabi, I only need one pound of kale, but I want all the green beans I can get"--and have software take everyone's preferences and turn them into "fair" allocations where everyone gets as much of whatever they want as possible without depriving anyone else.
That, combined with local delivery, has the potential to solve a lot of the practical problems that poor people face. Not the basic problem of working too hard for too many hours in neighborhoods that lack basic services--but still a lot.
At least, that's my fantasy.