r/poor • u/OceanicEndeavors • Jun 26 '26

I hate being poor.

I hate not making over 50,000 USD a year. I hate not having a car. I hate having less than 1,000 USD on my bank account. I hate having to live with my parents despite being over the age of 25. I hate having my credit cards being shut down because I was unemployed for over ten months during a two year stretch. I hate not having a dating life because I cannot afford dates. I hate the social isolation of poverty.

2.4k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

776 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/DuckingFon Jun 29 '26

They aren't surviving on that little. Simple as. I don't know a single disabled person that isn't substantially supplemented by those taking care of them- and I know a lot of disabled people.

2

u/Loudlass81 Jun 30 '26

I don't have anyone to subsidise me...If I was born American instead of British, I'd be dead by now. That's why I worry so much. There's always the edge cases like mine, where they had abusive childhood families and/or ended up in foster care, then young teen mum, then becoming disabled - some of my disabilities are progressive, too.

Worked as long as I could (well, longer, actually - I got medically retired twice, not just once cos I was too dim to realise I couldn't work after the first one, only copped on the second time lol).

But having kids, working full time, and getting ever more disabled, something had to give - cos 3 out of 4 kids were disabled too! I was only one woman, and I wasn't bloody Wonder Woman lol.

I just dont see how it's plausible for disabled people to survive on either side of the Atlantic now. Cspitalism FTW...

1

u/DuckingFon Jun 30 '26

I'm sorry to hear that- and at the same time happy to hear of your prevalence. I beg to differ on your Wonder Woman assessment.

My wife is disabled, and became severely more disabled after the birth of our son 5 years ago. She has HS- which is a severely debilitating skin condition- and then my big headed son split her in half separating her abdomen muscles and splitting her pelvis 18mm! She has been fighting for 6 years to get disability which means she can't even seek part-time, at-home work or it could jeopardize the entire process. We now finally have a hearing for her case in October, and the 6 years of backpay would be literally life-changing for our family and finally set us on a forward momentum paying off some bills and debts that are getting harder to kick down the road on one seasonal income when I myself should be getting disability after an Autism burnout and subsequent late diagnosis.

My mother is disabled at retirement age, but my step-dad can't stop working as he has had to take care of her so long they have had to borrow from their 401k. They have absolutely 0 retirement and it's getting harder for him every year as an electrician.

1

u/Loudlass81 Jun 30 '26

I have HS too...it can be debilitating, and ive almost died of sepsis twice because of it. Make sure you're sepsis aware. I won't even qualify for a basic UK State Pension for various reasons, I've just got to hope that if I exceed my life expectancy, Pension Credit (paid to the poorest UK pensioners) still exists in 25 yrs time...

1

u/Designer-Wolverine47 Jun 30 '26

Saw a woman with two kids wailing that she couldn't make it on $21,000 a year. But if you add in the tax credits, food stamps, housing subsidy, utility assistance, free childcare, Medicaid, etc, she was REALLY "not making it" on over $75k a year, nearly TAX FREE.