Rather than explain you keep trying to argue, and what you've done is shown the sheer level of your ignorance.
I know a man who dated a woman in college whose family was so rich she didn't know how to operate a washing machine, the help did that. Her solution to the conundrum was to just buy new clothes. One can imagine that when talking about the "middle class" she probably thinks they're like her except with less money. But you and I can recognize this as existing in an entirely different world than the middle class.
And in that vein, poor is not "middle class but with less money".
We're not talking about buying a corolla off the lot because you can't afford a BMW. We're not talking about buying a 2 year old corolla because you can't afford a BMW either.
We're talking about buying a $300 car that just happens to be a corolla and can't be driven on the highway because it flat doesn't go fast enough to legally do so. We're talking about owning 2 $300 cars to mitigate the risk when one of them inevitably breaks down and the constant repairs as a result causing the TCO of that vehicle to be far greater than the newer model corolla you're comparing it to. We're talking about not being able to afford insurance on one, or both, of those so that you're always in fear of police.
We're talking about the constant need for money for the laundromat because you can't afford to purchase a washer and dryer, or you live in a place where such things aren't even possible.
And if your thought goes anywhere near "well just buy another $300 car when that one breaks down", it means you have zero understanding of what it means to be poor.
Yes and my point is, if you actually had a society where you didn't need to own a car at all, that is what would actually help poor people. Far more then congrats now you can buy 50kg of rice at once and save 0.05c per kg.
If you actually lived in a society where there are cheap apartments in walking or biking distance from reasonable urban infrastructure and all the job that are there. So that you don't have to pay for your commute, or have some very local public transport.
That is what actually safes real money. That is how people in really poor places, like the Eastern block could reasonably approach a decent standard of living with far lower GDP. They lived in apartments, and had most things they needed close to them.
That is how you systematically can even approach to solving these issues.
If your analysis is restricted to, poor people can't utilize economics of scale on an individual bases, then you have a flawed view of poverty.
Consistently housing cost and transportation cost approach almost 50% of total living cost even for the middle class. And more then that for the poor, add food and you are going 90%+.
So if you can systematically so something to reduce housing cost and transportation cost, then you are actually changing lives on a real scale. Far more then buying food in slightly larger quantities, far more then buying slightly higher quality shoes.
70 years of bad urban planning really did hurt the poor and the only way to fix it is to actually fix those issues systematically. Not sure how this is moving the goal post. This is the exact topic we are discussing 'Why it costs so much to be poor'.
And it doesn't actually take that much, a few changes to zoneing law, different usage patterns for existing infrastructure, some extra bus lines and so on. Nothing that is actually crazy or that expensive. These things could have a huge impact already.
Obsessing over minor issues like food bulk buy vs smaller shopping when housing and transportation is the true issue is actually the exact problem.
Lol, who is moving the goal posts now. You simply lost the argument.
Nothing completely solves the poor people problem and I have not claimed on doing so. Specially when we talk about thing we do in first world nations, as most people live in places like India and Indonesia and the problems there are actually pretty different.
They lack infrastructure when in the US the problem is actually that there is, to much and it not used effectively.
This articles is about:
> The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
And I am point out things that are almost universally accepted by urban planning community know-days. It address this specific point, why cost of living are so high in the US for poor people.
Addressing these points would not solve poverty, but it would reduce a huge cost burden from a huge part of the population and would improve living quality substantially.
I know this probably isn't worth much, but after reading through most of this thread, I must say I appreciate your efforts to explain the existence of the working poor here. I am probably biased, because you have essentially been representing the way my family was forced to exist for my entire early life (you have no idea how crazy spot on that "$300 car that just happens to be a corolla" example was --core memory unlocked, as they say), but either way, I just thought you should know that your efforts and apparently immense patience in the face of bad faith arguments and willfull ignorance is truly appreciated.
I have so many car stories from when I was young. Cars that had no floor (you could literally see the street as you drove), to cars that needed 2 people to start (solenoid bolt was stripped so it required someone holding it in place).
I've been driving my current vehicle since 2004 (a corolla, actually) and I plan on driving it for another 15-20 years if I can. The one thing that would convince me to get rid of it is if it started leaking oil. I've just seen too much of that when I was young, constantly putting oil in because it's leaking and it's too expensive to fix.
To this day it feels magical to have a reliable vehicle I know will start when I turn the key. That stuff sticks with you.
I know a man who dated a woman in college whose family was so rich she didn't know how to operate a washing machine, the help did that. Her solution to the conundrum was to just buy new clothes. One can imagine that when talking about the "middle class" she probably thinks they're like her except with less money. But you and I can recognize this as existing in an entirely different world than the middle class.
And in that vein, poor is not "middle class but with less money".
We're not talking about buying a corolla off the lot because you can't afford a BMW. We're not talking about buying a 2 year old corolla because you can't afford a BMW either.
We're talking about buying a $300 car that just happens to be a corolla and can't be driven on the highway because it flat doesn't go fast enough to legally do so. We're talking about owning 2 $300 cars to mitigate the risk when one of them inevitably breaks down and the constant repairs as a result causing the TCO of that vehicle to be far greater than the newer model corolla you're comparing it to. We're talking about not being able to afford insurance on one, or both, of those so that you're always in fear of police.
We're talking about the constant need for money for the laundromat because you can't afford to purchase a washer and dryer, or you live in a place where such things aren't even possible.
And if your thought goes anywhere near "well just buy another $300 car when that one breaks down", it means you have zero understanding of what it means to be poor.