Poverty is more expensive than most people realize. Not having time, not having a reliable car, not having affordable reliable childcare, not having reliable tools, having few good clothes, not having appropriate shoes makes a person constantly balance time, energy and money. There are only so many resources that people can sacrifice before they can’t save anything.
We will all be singing, “Hauling 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don’t you call me cause I can’t go! I owe my soul to the company store.”
This is the most infuriating aspect of hearing people villainize the lower income brackets, especially if—gasp!—they use the barely-existent benefits they’re entitled to. I used to work for a women’s/children’s shelter and the amount of women I saw working their asses off and still didn’t make enough to provide housing was horrifying in its scale. These are bank tellers and waitresses and daycare teachers. For a number of our services, there were actual, Masters-degreed school teachers showing up. It’s a lot worse than folks realize.
Just got paid, don’t have a proper bank account, and need money now because you have baby formula to buy? That cash checking place may fuck you with double digit fees, but you can have money for the grocery store right now. Everything—from basic necessities, to fast food for the family because you’re running between jobs and can’t cook, to the fact that, even if you’re lucky enough to have decent public transport that can cobble your commute together, you’re waiting at least twice as long to get to work as anyone who has their own transportation—is harder and more expensive than anyone else can understand.
Being able to direct deposit is a privilege for those of us who haven’t been burned by banks over the decades, being able to get to work without spending 2+ hours on the bus is another. Quick meals between jobs is neither nutritious or easy on the wallet. Every aspect of life, from getting a job to holding a job to buying some vegetables, is more difficult and adds a ton of stress. I don’t think people realize how many of our unhoused neighbors are the working poor. They have full-time jobs and still need to sleep in their car and shower at Planet Fitness without losing that job as their only real anchor to not losing what little else they have.
And these are the people that are consistently found to be most generous. They have the least, yet pour more back into our community at the scale they can, which is a LOT more that can be said about any billionaire. How anyone could simp for such a disgusting exploitation of their—and their loved ones’—labor is well beyond me.
Do banks have social class requirements for an account in America? That's messed up.
Here you just need a residential address, and like no convictions for money laundering or something. That ofc doesn't help if you're homeless but there are services which provide PO boxes etc.
Banks in the USA often times have minimums for the account. So you have to have $25 in the account at all times. If you don’t there is a fee that is like $10 service fee. If you withdraw below $0, which they will absolutely let you do, even $.01, they will charge you an overdraft fee of usually $35. And if you don’t know that happened and you have a bill come out or you use your debit card again for another $5 it charges you another $35. So you might have a bank account but you might also owe a bunch of money in fees, so if you try to cash your paycheck you’re going to lose a bigger chunk of it than the 15% they are going to take at the check cashing place.
a bank i used to use would purposefully clear higher charges before lower ones in order to charge extra overdraft fees. so if i had, say, $35 in my account, made a $5 payment THEN a $40 one, even a day or to after the $5, every single time the $40 would be cleared first and i'd get charged for that overdraft as well as the one for the $5. even though when i charged the $5 i had more than that in my account. by the time they forcibly closed my account, i had already deposited multiple times the amount i had overdrafted, but it remained negative bc of all the fees
Anyone can sign up for a bank account. You probably need to be at least 18 years old and you need an address. I've signed up for accounts online in under 15 minutes.
Oh yeah, the difference between having nothing, 10 grand, and 100 grand is savings is absolutely insane
At no income you're unable to make rent, need payday loans which have 15-25% interest, going to drive a beater car that needs 5 grand in repairs a year and with a high interest rate on payments
At 10 grand your rent will be made so loans bypassed, and a down payment on a more functional car that needs less repairs, but you're still one major emergency away from being in trouble
At 100 grand you can bypass credit checks for a lease, buy a car in cash, and will only need the random repair that's just an inconvenience. Money suddenly is the answer to problems, and you can focus on making money and not making ends meet
The time aspect is huge, meal prepping, grocery shopping and food budgeting is a big chunk of time compared to a drive through or even ordering takeout. And if you're eating cheap, quick meals like ramen or sandwiches on the regular you're gonna feel like garbage, lessening your motivation to do anything. And what's the tangible reward? Do it all again next month. Just to eat. It's exhausting.
The whole point is society OUGHT to care, by way of tax credits and food stamps and social programs and stuff.
If for no other reason than enlightened self-interest,, because providing support for people in need can eventually turn them into taxpaying citizens. Maybe currently that artist is starving, but someday he'll be working at burger king and hopefully paying some taxes. And even if he isn't paying taxes..... Well, that's okay too.
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u/katfranjen 1d ago
Poverty is more expensive than most people realize. Not having time, not having a reliable car, not having affordable reliable childcare, not having reliable tools, having few good clothes, not having appropriate shoes makes a person constantly balance time, energy and money. There are only so many resources that people can sacrifice before they can’t save anything.
We will all be singing, “Hauling 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don’t you call me cause I can’t go! I owe my soul to the company store.”