Being poor means living in a sh*t neighborhood in a sh*t apt with super thin walls and sh*t neighbors that are psycho and drive you crazy.
Being poor means not being able to go out and do things because everything costs money.
Being poor means not having a car which means you can’t get anywhere.
So does money = happiness?  No, but but it definitely helps to alleviate a shitload of misery.
28 comments
money = means
and as any honest person will admit, happiness requires the means to both initiate and sustain it. Money afford change. If you can’t do the actions that result in reliably receiving more money than you need, then happiness is impossible, because you won’t have enough to buy the tools to create the solutions to change what needs changing, in order to minimize misery and maximize control of your environment, so that you can eliminate as many causes of problems as possible… so that your time and energy will be free of the requirement to navigate problems other people choose to impose upon you, and so you can then put your time and effort into manifesting the experiences you want.
poverty is about the worst thing that can happen to a person, aside from grievous injury and/or direct torture (physical or otherwise). Poverty means you can’t maintain your health or avoid nastiness in this toxic world… which means you die the slowest possible death, without ever being able to truly live.
Actually, let’s dig one level deeper: the inability to correct one’s own poverty, is the worst thing (exceptions noted)… because of what it both causes and prevents.
we’re the test-takers, not the test-makers; we are only allowed to choose from the available choices, selected for us by a committee of “experts” (or perhaps even a machine). We are not allowed to access any choice that is not included as one of the options.
Some people have more resilient bodies, and are able to “just keep going” when they don’t want to. Some don’t. And for many of us, we’d be able to keep going, if only we could make enough to sustain our own health… but we can’t. It’s a paradox.
You don’t get to “just decide” to make more money; it doesn’t work that way. All money comes from other people, and many of us have no way to provide anything that enough people would reliably want, to have a surviving, much less thriving, business. So the only remaining option is fighting over scraps, which aren’t even enough to fuel the need for the amount of energy required to keep fighting… let alone any actually useful advancements.
The opportunity to simply “decide to become wealthy,” is not available to everyone. It’s not available to most people. It’s only available to a very small percentage of people who luck into the right circumstances where their efforts can yield results, instead of futility or waste. Anyone who thinks otherwise is living in fantasyland.
Thank you clevername. Not everyone can just *decide* to well-off. It’s not like anyone decides or chooses to be poor. Does anyone wake up in the morning and go “you know what, I think I’ll just decide to be broke and have a crappy life.” No one chooses to be poor.
I’m poor too. It sucks having to tell my kids that they can’t have that when im buying groceries on food stamps. Food stamps that were cut in half because I took on a second job. This is my fault, I made bad choices in my past. I’m starting a third job on Monday. Maybe I’ll get off the stamps altogether and have the funds to support my family, at the cost of being able to spend time with my family.
Lack of money isn’t what bothers me, I doubt I’ll get cable even if I could afford it. I like internet though. Be nice to pah my own phone bill. To not need government support. I feel as though I’m a failure.
Its hard to get one good job. Where I live there are 3 good companies to work for. If you dont get one of those then hopefully you can work your way into manager position somewhere.
@alilmom- It’s hard when you try and you work hard, and still barely able to make ends meet. I hope you find a better paying job and get more time to spend with your kids. And no, it isn’t necessarily that you’re a failure- it’s just that the people at the top have rigged the system so regular folks just can’t get ahead anymore. All that is documented by facts for any naysayers- real wages, adjusted for inflation, has remained flat for the last 30 years, while costs for education, healthcare, and housing have skyrocketed. So people nowadays slave away and struggle, and still get nowhere, because at the end of the day, after all the bills are paid, there isn’t much left, if any at all.
I’d imagine that the neighbors are rude, loud, mean. They are probably angry. Many of them probably use drugs and steal. Bah probably, is in fear of some, sick of rudeness from others. Guess what, the people that live where bah and I live are not great people. Not all of them are bad, but many simply don’t care to better themselves. A lot will take what you have just because they don’t have it.
True, but nobody ever said they hate anyone. All that’s been hated is being poor.
Financially well off people carry the equal amount of troubles. I understand the argument of money buys, food and healthcare. Just because you have enough money to live in an affluent neighborhood doesn’t mean that you won’t have problems with hostile neighbors. I have found there is no magic money number at which you being happy. The problems you have now will be replaced with different problems. Happiness in not based on circumstances, but attitude. I work in some of the poorest countries in the world. No clean drinking water, trash alongside the rivers for miles, rampant disease and starvation, education in exchange For sexual slavery, murdering for shoes….it goes on. There are joyful people there and depressed individuals too. On the flip side of the coin, I work with some affluent people and just because they have huge bank accounts doesn’t mean they are free from depression. While some in the same boat are surrounded by joy. Money can be part of self destruction just as poverty can be part of self destruction.
Deadbolts and handguns exist; neighbors really aren’t the problem. I would never want to live in “an affluent neighborhood.” I’d want to live at least a mile away from anyone, in a semi-rural area not far from an appealing major city.
“No clean drinking water, trash alongside the rivers for miles, rampant disease and starvation, education in exchange For sexual slavery, murdering for shoes….it goes on.”
Maybe you don’t realize… that’s a pretty accurate description of many areas in the US. Kids have been murdered for their “jordans,” their ipods, and various other superficial material trinkets. One kid here in my “home town” was murdered while confronting the person who stole his ipod (or iphone, i don’t recall, the difference is irrelevant), because he understood the principle of the thing, and thought it was wrong to let that person just take his stuff like that.
There are prostitution rings, cartel operations, “mafia” types… the US is not the shining ray of glamor projected by the media, to the rest of the world.
The thing is… poverty cannot buy solutions to the problems it causes; affluence can. The difference is that people who are forced to live with less and go without, tend to appreciate what they have, more than those who have encountered an easy surplus, but still don’t know how to use it to make themselves content.
The quality of the tool doesn’t matter if the one possessing it, does not know how to use it properly.
You are freaking brilliant! Everything you said is truth for me and probally many others that are in likewise circumstances however I could not have articulated this as profoundly yet blatantly as you did! I was thinking to myself about how much I hate being poor and decided to Google those exact words”I hate being poor” and came across this blog. I never comment on blog sites as I don’t have any accounts besides the general email but after reading your comment I felt compelled to post a comment myself!…PLEASE DON’T GIVE UP NOR GIVE IN YOU ARE TRULY AN EXCEPTIONAL HUMAN BEING!! maybe you should peruse becoming a writer or activist or an attorney…I don’t know exactly but even a blind man can see that you are phenomenal and you possess the gift inside of you to gain wealth or at least place you on the other side of the fence and out of poverty
u r awesome clevername, how did you become so articulate?
practice… and endless brooding.
I never said that money buys happiness. Read my post. I even said it doesn’t. What I said is that it would help alleviate some things that come with poverty. Will you be happy if you don’t know when you’re next meal is coming from? Are you going to be happy if it’s freezing cold and you don’t have heat? Will you be happy from all the health conditions you will suffer from malnutrition? Or not have the money to go see a doctor?
Money does not bring happiness, but it certainly helps to not be cold or hungry.
Of course, there are wealthy people who are unhappy. But if you think all problems are the same, think again. How do you compare the problems of girl who’s sold into slavery the same as some rich girl who’s not happy cuz she didn’t get a BMW on her birthday?
Let us not make light of the problems the poor face. A wealthy person’s problems are not the same as the problems that the poor face.
The quality of the tool doesn’t matter if the one possessing it, doesn’t know how to use it properly.
There have been many individuals that overcame poverty to achieve great acts for the world. My personal favorite is Jon Huntsman Sr.
There have been many individual that overcame poverty to end up imploding.
I came from poor, abusive, and broken home, but far from the worst the world has to offer. Financial success almost fully did me in. It still may if I don’t always remember what it was like back then. After all on my death bed none of the finances will matter.
Clevername, I am sure you are correct that this also exists in the US. It it’s the job of us that can do something about it to do so. We have to start in our own homes cleaning up and demanding better treatment before we can expect the community and state to straighten out.
With that said, I have sent enough time in Caracas to know that they kill over 550 in that city alone each month, I have seen the kill count in the 600s. There are worse places that my colleagues have worked in. There are no outreach programs funded by individuals, the government or east
War lords steal the international food and medical aide.
You don’t need money to bring about change in your household or your neighborhood. Love and compassion for those around you can go far, especially at a young age. Have you ever heard someone say “I hate being rich”? It happens. You just don’t know enough rich people yet. Rich people still commit suicide too.
I have never heard someone who was once poor, claim to hate being rich. The only time i can imagine hearing that, it would be said by a comedian making a point about how being wealthy is not something to complain about.
You do, actually, need money to bring about change in your own household. People who have to use semi-functional, half-broken appliances, tend to feel constantly frustrated, wishing they could just buy a new one, or even repair the current one, so that it’s not such a hassle to interact with… but they can’t, because there’s not enough money to invest into making the every day experience better, by eliminating even the smallest of problems. No, without money, you’re stuck in a never ending hassle-war… even if you’re not running from murderers and dodging bullets.
Also, most of those “outreach programs” are gated by Xian or other religious gatekeepers. They want to help the religious, they want to help women, they want to help children… they don’t want to help me. They want me, and everyone like me, to just die already. My intellect poses a threat to their beneficial paradigm, which is built on exploitation and perpetuation of ignorance, facilitated by indoctrination protocols and misinformation of people who don’t know any better, and can’t afford to avoid those “free” help. Free always has a price… even if you don’t notice it right away.
Rich people i think commit suicide because they “get in over their heads,” and/or fear to lose their wealth… or are already headed for “the poor house.” They are so unwilling to experience that, they’d rather die. Or, some of them realize that all their personal relationships with other people, are based on their money, and not who they really are… which i can figure sucks quite a lot, which is one reason that stops me from being overwhelmingly eager to become wealthy. If i become wealthy… how will i ever be able to trust anyone? Then again, i already know to never fully trust anyone, even while i have nothing, and live entirely at the mercy of those few who aren’t ready to let me go. And i still consider going, even if they’re not ready to “let me.” Whether i can continue my existence, is on me. Whether they could get over my departure, would be on them.
Clevername, your last paragraph thoroughly addresses your first.
I have no appliences, no power(just some solar) I may put running water in this year. I live just fine. I have learned just because I can buy it doesn’t mean I need it or that I will really benefit me in the long run. In the winter I cook on a wood stove and summer I cook on an outside fire. Granted I don’t have a wife or children but I do know others that live like this in Maine. I would never say it is right or wrong, I just know that stuff distracts me in a negative way.
As always you do bring many valid and objectionable points, especially with the “free” help. Many do want non thinkers to follow their”free” stuff. It happens everywhere, with religions, governmentsand friends.
If I ran an outreach “help” program I would not want you to die. I would want you to challenge what I say and do. I value your comments and arguments.
Thanks.
And that’s interesting… but i think most people who are “domesticated,” would not be comfortable with shedding their material attachments to convenience, and living primitively.
Sometimes (most of the time) it’s better to pay for something directly, than to agree to whatever hidden stipulations come with “free.” In fact, that’s one of my most valued potential “privileges:” the privilege to not have to agree to obligate myself to unfavorable conditions, in order to receive what i want or need. I want “wealth,” so that i can trade it for being free of obligation. But i’ve done some figuring and calculating, and was astonished at the mount of material wealth that is actually required to achieve such a freedom. And since that is the only way to become free in such a way… it shows that while we are inherently “free” as human beings, there exist systems, into which we are born, which stake a claim on our very existences… and i believe that claim is invalid, unfounded, and illegitimate… but they have enough guns and thugs to enforce whatever they say is law, regardless of whether anyone thinks it’s right. The only reason they are careful with such things, is to avoid causing enough unrest among the populous, to instigate a “critical mass,” in which the citizens will mass-awaken to the injustice abound, and feel compelled to rise against it (despite how incredibly destructive it would be, to do so).
They’ll do as much as they can get away with, without causing “the masses” to revolt. This is where the indoctrination systems become so important and useful. As long as they keep enough of us confused and fighting amongst ourselves, we can never unite against the tyranny, with any measure of efficacy. Meanwhile, they’ll continue exploiting us all, because that’s what the system is designed to do.
Anyway… according to what i see everywhere, i just can’t think of anything useful that i can contribute, that’s actually possible for me to accomplish… and of what remains after eliminating what i think is impossible or futile, i just don’t see anything else available that i really want to do, or that will even lead to my acquisition of enough wealth to at least distance myself from the systems i can’t mesh with.
Meanwhile, i’m basically just watching existence tick away, unused, because there’s nothing i can really do with it, from within my circumstances, and i don’t see any way to make any useful changes, without incurring excessive costs that i don’t feel would be worth the changes.
And then i burn out thinking about it, and take a long time to recover enough to burn myself out thinking about it again. But if i just stop thinking completely, i will ensure that if there ever was a way, i’ll never find it. But if there is a way, and i just can’t use it… then the only difference is the amount that i suffer between now and the end. And if suffering becomes the only factor, it seems like the best choice would be to simply end my own existence, since all it ever really produces is more suffering, more requirements, more obligations, and more disinclination to persist in what seems utterly futile.
I think i’m going back into lost-mode soon. I guess it doesn’t really matter, since the same thing will happen each time i emerge, and shift into “gotta figure out how to make enough money” mode. I can’t do what i need to do, and it’s not just ruining my life, but it’s steadily decreasing my capacity to do anything at all.
it’s weird… when i was a kid, i remember encountering moments of profundity, in which i felt a sort of epiphany that “i can’t really do anything.” They would always tell me “can’t never could do nothin’!” and “you have to believe in yourself, believe you can do it…” Or, the story of “the little engine that could…”
But it was all just tricks. At some point it became very clear to me that simply believing you can do something, isn’t enough… and that sometimes, you really just can’t. And the “adults” around me didn’t seem to understand that at all, which lead to me questioning their reasoning, their honesty, and ultimately, realizing that their heads were full of fantasies that didn’t match the reality i could so easily observe. I kept trying, kept trying to believe… but it never got me anywhere but disappointed in my failures, due to believing i could do what i couldn’t… and “learning the hard way.”
So now i just… i don’t know. I couldn’t do anything. And that seems to have lead to a situation where i still can’t do anything. If i’m always miserable and can’t do anything… i don’t see how that is supposed to be appealing, or even valuable at all. The value in existence is in the doing… and i’m not doing what i can’t do. It just sucks. And time keeps passing, and there’s nothing i can do. I am so far beyond frustration… and i don’t think there is anything left to wait for. I think if i keep waiting, things will only get worse until my hand is forced. And then it won’t feel like a choice at all, but rather like a trapped animal gnawing off its own leg to escape. I can’t imagine that being a very peaceful scenario.
There are drawbacks to having money, although to be fair it’s better to have than have not. For example: Once you get into a certain income tax bracket 40% of your income goes to taxes. Keeping 60 cents for each dollar you make hurts. The first time you write a check to the IRS for $24,000 you think “why the fuck am I working so hard if I have to give this much away”?
Of course, complaining about taxes to somebody who earns less in one year than you send to Uncle Sam is futile. Poor people don’t want to hear about how tough it is sending hard earned cash to a support programs you’re fundamentally opposed too.
On the other hand, there is less to worry about when you own very little and don’t have to keep track of various investments/properties/business ventures. Plus, you find out who your friends are when you go from “having” to not having.
Money doesn’t buy happiness but it can provide you with opportunities you wouldn’t have otherwise.
But taxes are a necessity. Education, police, the justice system and many other fundamental parts of the infrastructure can’t work properly without some sort of tax system. It is of course always debatable that what is the correct tax ratio and how the tax money should be used. For example your country wastes more money into the military complex than the rest of the world together.
Clevername, I know you don’t care “set” work hours or a definite schedule of the 40 a week. There must be something that you are interested in? You comment here habitually with just little sabbatical thrown in. I believe you could contribute to society greatly. What are you views on being an author/teacher or therapist?
Everything that has ever happened in this world started with a thought. You have forged an uncanny thought processes out of the experiences of your past. The things you call failures were not. They were you proving what does and doesn’t work, and why. Don’t waste the decades of effort.
I know complexity of this argument. It is as difficult for me to prove to you, that you should embrace life because there is unlimited potential in you to make differences in others lives, as there would be the same difficulty for you to convince me to give up in life. The kicker is, I trust you more than I trust myself.
Those parts of the infrastructure don’t work properly anyway. Why is it illegal for me to decline to fund a system that causes needless suffering?
And, the US isn’t “wasting” money into the MIC… they’re investing and making profits through oil raids, and imposing “democracy” (hilarious irony) on peoples who do not want to do things the way the US does them. But since the MIC has all the guns, tanks, jets, bombs, and drones, there’s nothing they can do about it. They can either go along with it, or get murdered by people who believe they are “protecting our freedom.”
Even if you pay $24k in taxes, you have still cleared $36k, which is ~3x as much as anyone working for minimum wage (there is a legally mandated minimum that legitimate business are required to pay their employees… so of course, no one wants to pay more than they can legally get away with… and they would gladly pay nothing, if they could get away with that).
Plus, the dollar just isn’t worth nearly as much as it used to be, which means that while ~$800/month might seem like plenty to some people, it really isn’t. Rent costs at least half that. You try owning a vehicle on $100 a week, and still having enough to eat food that isn’t going to kill you faster, and then having anything left over. You can’t do it. Plus, it costs ~$40/week just to drive a vehicle to work and back each day. Milk is like $5/gal now. Even the cheapest pink-slime integrated ground beef is expensive… but the real cost of cheap is your health, which, once it declines far enough, will be too degraded to even maintain the fight for the scraps that are minimum wage. Minimum wage only works if you can get paid for each hour you exist. There are only 168 hours in a week, and most people can only do ~40-60. How am i supposed to afford to exist for those other 100-120 hours per week?
What they really want, is for us to starve to death as gradually as possible, so that we’ll stay too weak to do anything about it, but not die too fast to pay into the horribly corrupt tax system, which involuntarily perpetuates the machinations that keep us oppressed… all while pretending this is “freedom” and “democracy” and “privilege.”
Have you guys seen how much college costs now? Have you seen how even people with Masters and PhD’s, are unable to find work? Everything is outsourced. At some point, they managed to saturate the system with more shit than anyone could ever buy, while creating an economy scale that prevents most people from buying any of it. Someone must be making outrageous profits somewhere, or it doesn’t make sense that any products can even still be produced. How can anyone maintain a thriving business, if so many people can’t afford to buy anything? And yet, there are people who make plenty, and businesses to pay them well…
“Taxes are a necessity”. Yeah, I’ve heard the arguments in favor of taxes at least 500 times. I don’t mind having a portion of my taxes going to fund education, public roads, parks, etc. But like you said, the US govt. spends a lot of money bombing people in oil rich countries, which I’m not down with.
I’m unmarried and I’ve never had kids, and I don’t plan on collecting social security, yet I spend what I consider to be a disproportionate amount funding programs for people who belong to groups that I’m not a part of. I give a hell of a lot more than I take from the system.
If it was voluntary, I probably would contribute towards causes I believe in. That’s not how it works though. People with money are forced to fund a paradigm regardless of whether or not they agree with the policies in place.
This is why I don’t vote or participate in politics in any way, shape or form. I’m 99% sure that no matter who gets elected, I’ll still be required to help fund a system I’d rather see toppled. I’ll still have my hard earned tax dollars go towards causes I don’t support.
– No offense to the OP- This is all a little off topic. My main point was that having money is good, yes, but at the same time it sucks feeling like you’ve been penalized after you’ve followed the rules and done what you needed to do to be successful. We’re all screwed and will be until the day we die, unless you can find a way to drop out of society and simply stop participating. Good luck with that, gawd knows I’ve tried going that route. (It didn’t work out).
@ clevername; “How can anyone maintain a thriving business”?
That’s easy. Become a government contractor. The govt. does a fine job of over paying contractors for their services. The govt. is also surprisingly expedient when it comes time to pay. God bless the bureaucrats. 🙂
Of course I’m a hypocrite. I despise the system, yet I never had a problem charging the govt. twice as much as I would a regular person. The GW Bush years were very kind to me. (Lucrative).
Oh well….”good times come and good times go, I only wish the good times would last a little longer.” – Social Distortion
C4. I find other governments are better to work for. In the big picture though they are all in bed with one another.
There’s a reason they’re called “globalists.”
I hate being poor too I work hard to earn 7 dollars a day, if lucky enough to get any work. My disfigurement and illnesses have prevented any possibility of “a real job” out in society so I’m scraping by, clean toilets, and parents provide my food. Can’t afford proper medical care. lucky to have a bed and a home because most people in my condition would be out on the streets. I know I’m just a step away from that if something happened to my parents. Try getting a job with a facial deformity, no one will look at you let alone interview no matter your skill, friendliness and intelligence. This is America where supposedly life is good. I hate looking at stuff all the time that I’ll never be able to afford, and can’t imagine what a rich persons life must be like lounging around at the pool. God what I’d give for a day like that.
@C4- I agree with you on that last paragraph. I had worked hard all my life too, doing all the “right” things, working so hard and for so long, and for what? Just to get nowhere.
@rach- America was a place where hard worked paid off and upward mobility was possible- before 1980. Since then, there has been massive changes in policies, policies created by the 1%, that tipped everything in favor of the 1%, screwing the masses. Stagnant wages and exploding costs have crushed us.