I feel this article buries its focus in a lot of narrative, as the core point is very accurate I believe but you have 2400 words to try to explain
"not everyone handles bad situations the same way"
This is a really tough article for me as personally, I moved to Seattle with < $300 to my name and somehow made it work. For a few years, I lived on rice and eggs, going to concerts/shows was a treat, and free2play games took up my weekends.
The article tries to convey how the mindset of being poor, not knowing if you'll have enough money for food or common (western) comforts each week wears on the mind, and I do think this is true. From a very privileged position, I have the opinion that a lot of "raise your status" schools are just garbage meant to fleece the appropriate amount of money from persons in need. (e.g., bootcamps or specialty IT schools. My personal take is they teach how to press buttons/write very narrow and specific code and how to raise support cases with vendors, not how to understand what you're working with)
I do not even pretend to understand "real" poverty; I'm extremely lucky in that I had the option to leave the US and work abroad where the capacity to learn was a considered element of the position. Despite the experience I have in System Administration and Programming, I'd probably fail most US interviews simply because I lack the certifications to appease recruiters and I don't have the certification history to appease hiring managers.
I find this article to be very US oriented (maybe UK? Not as clear for me), and the way the US treats the poor is abysmal. When I was still living in the US, I recall huge fees for medical procedures that the Doctors deemed seriously necessary (possible cancer), but insurance companies denied as the results were negative, and thus not necessary. Positions constantly asked for N years experience for technologies only around for (N-X) years, or expecting 5 technology stacks to work for 35k USD or less.
Now that I work outside of such a system, I deal with the persons who __are__ hired for such positions, and naturally they lied from top to bottom on their CV to get the position; I don't blame them for lying their way into the position, but I do fault them for expecting others to fulfill each technology stack for them.
The US has a huge issue with education and poverty in general, with education being so much for pay. I faced so much pushback for paying my student debt in advance and had a few months of argument with payment lenders when I paid my student debt a good number of months in advance, and I cannot see any justification for this. (It truly took 6 months to get a confirmation that my debt was paid in full)
From my perspective, far too many systems in the US benefit from the poor having no other choice. I paid $3500 for a biopsy that by all means I feel should have been covered by my insurance. Four months into the event, I had already spent 80+ hours defending my position and _not_ paying prevented me from moving to a new apartment.
Compared to moving to eastern Europe, the cost of the same procedures was $100 USD up front, no surprise bills later, insurance didn't bat an eye at this cost.
The US is built on bilking the poor for every penny; there's no wonder that there is such a negative mindset on those who haven't lucked out on life.
I am so happy I was able to find a way to get out of the US, despite all of my complaints about it. Hearing my friends and family tell me about "how great" it is, despite carrying $100K + in medical debt is just appalling. Every action of their life for programmers, nurses, doctors, and other such privileged positions is undermined by the fact that every system they rely on is designed to fleece them for as much money over their entire life as possible.
It's a sick and disgusting system that seems resilient to change no matter how many people realize it's absolutely awful.
Pervasive rent seeking and price gouging in the healthcare sector is a sad reality in the U.S., but it doesn't just hurt the poor. It's bad for everyone. People usually try to push for socialized medicine as some sort of panacea, but that doesn't help at all if the price gouging part is not addressed.
far too many systems in the US benefit from the poor having no other choice. I paid $3500 for a biopsy
With some exceptions, here is the amount that the poor pay for biopsies in the United States: Zero dollars.
The US is built on bilking the poor for every penny
SNAP, section 8, Medicaid, TANF, SSDI, SSI, EIC, "Child Tax Credits", etc. That's mostly federal tax dollars. Once you get into state money and private charity, the reality is that there is a cornucopia of handouts for the "poor" in this country that is absolutely unheralded in history. Now it might all be too little--I won't say what the perfect system looks like. But don't act like the "system" is trying to hurt the poor. It is not.
While I am grateful you list the options for many, please understand I was in a position where I was too "rich" for all these options (more than 25k), but too poor for effective insurance ($45k+)
I don't feel this is a trivial range, and yet, sub $65 seem to have special rules that add a ridiculous amount of stress.
I din't want children because I didn't want to raise a child who had fight for basic comforts. I personally don't want a child for the purpose of qualifying for a break, and I've not felt the desire to raise a child on the "chance" that some payouts will work.
Checking a few of the items you metnioned, I'm glad you did as they're not known tot me, but it seems risky, and the conditions that forbid me to qualify are too great/ambiguous.
Again, I cannot stress how relaxing it is to be in Russia of all places and be told "MRI? 4000 rubles" _before_ I take the MRI, when the same MRI in the US has a variable cost only delivered _after_ the procedure. This stresses me out immensely.
When I was last in the US temporarily, I had an ear infection, and since I had no insurance, medication cost me $450 for a week's worth of pills; abroad, this cost me $10
I cannot stress enough that it's not about the potential to circumvent the systems that the US has, it's about the base out of pocket cost and how you are penalized for not participating in the US healthcare system. I grant there might bee another answer, but somehow the rest of the world uses the same machines/analyses and can charge far less. It's only the US where I was afraid to even go to the hospital _with insurance_ when I might have broken my ribs on the off-chance I'd be denied.
yes, I could fight it, but after 10+ hours, this is almost a part-time/full-time job to get what I've already paid for. If I already paid, why do I have to spend my time to get what is rightfully mine?
Median US income is ~31k, the fact that this is right in the middle of where aid ends is, if not by design, is something that evolved out of wealthy self protection.
The working poor are the most compliant workers with the least bargaining power.
A person proves incontrovertibly that they are hard workers willing to contribute to society (and not lazy poor as the rhetoric so cruelly propagates) and we immediately cut off community aid and put them right back on the marginal bubble.
It's helpful when your employees are kept on a treadmill that moves slightly faster than they can run.
Have you actually attempted to take advantage of any of these? Some of them apply only to a small subset of people - SSDI AND SSI explicitly exclude able-bodied poor. One is available only to adults who have already worked 10 years, and one actively goes away if you ever even collect assets (or even marry!) this effectively keeping you in poverty. One you mentioned is a program that no longer exists. And SNAP is more or less generous depending on the state in which you live, fwiw.
"not everyone handles bad situations the same way"
This is a really tough article for me as personally, I moved to Seattle with < $300 to my name and somehow made it work. For a few years, I lived on rice and eggs, going to concerts/shows was a treat, and free2play games took up my weekends.
The article tries to convey how the mindset of being poor, not knowing if you'll have enough money for food or common (western) comforts each week wears on the mind, and I do think this is true. From a very privileged position, I have the opinion that a lot of "raise your status" schools are just garbage meant to fleece the appropriate amount of money from persons in need. (e.g., bootcamps or specialty IT schools. My personal take is they teach how to press buttons/write very narrow and specific code and how to raise support cases with vendors, not how to understand what you're working with)
I do not even pretend to understand "real" poverty; I'm extremely lucky in that I had the option to leave the US and work abroad where the capacity to learn was a considered element of the position. Despite the experience I have in System Administration and Programming, I'd probably fail most US interviews simply because I lack the certifications to appease recruiters and I don't have the certification history to appease hiring managers.
I find this article to be very US oriented (maybe UK? Not as clear for me), and the way the US treats the poor is abysmal. When I was still living in the US, I recall huge fees for medical procedures that the Doctors deemed seriously necessary (possible cancer), but insurance companies denied as the results were negative, and thus not necessary. Positions constantly asked for N years experience for technologies only around for (N-X) years, or expecting 5 technology stacks to work for 35k USD or less.
Now that I work outside of such a system, I deal with the persons who __are__ hired for such positions, and naturally they lied from top to bottom on their CV to get the position; I don't blame them for lying their way into the position, but I do fault them for expecting others to fulfill each technology stack for them.
The US has a huge issue with education and poverty in general, with education being so much for pay. I faced so much pushback for paying my student debt in advance and had a few months of argument with payment lenders when I paid my student debt a good number of months in advance, and I cannot see any justification for this. (It truly took 6 months to get a confirmation that my debt was paid in full)
From my perspective, far too many systems in the US benefit from the poor having no other choice. I paid $3500 for a biopsy that by all means I feel should have been covered by my insurance. Four months into the event, I had already spent 80+ hours defending my position and _not_ paying prevented me from moving to a new apartment.
Compared to moving to eastern Europe, the cost of the same procedures was $100 USD up front, no surprise bills later, insurance didn't bat an eye at this cost.
The US is built on bilking the poor for every penny; there's no wonder that there is such a negative mindset on those who haven't lucked out on life.
I am so happy I was able to find a way to get out of the US, despite all of my complaints about it. Hearing my friends and family tell me about "how great" it is, despite carrying $100K + in medical debt is just appalling. Every action of their life for programmers, nurses, doctors, and other such privileged positions is undermined by the fact that every system they rely on is designed to fleece them for as much money over their entire life as possible.
It's a sick and disgusting system that seems resilient to change no matter how many people realize it's absolutely awful.