I get it. I wasn’t poor growing up, but I might as well have been. I was the oldest, but I got the leftovers and hand-me-downs. I wasn’t allowed to get what I wanted except at birthdays and Christmas, and was grateful I got anything, tho that would be taken from me at any time. I ended up impoverished when my 4 kids were 1 thru 7 and my ex left us. Whole long story, but I was terrified my own children would end up on welfare, so I worked myself like crazy to give them a decent life. I’ve only begun to start saving in the past five years. I’m a senior getting ready to retire, but I have a daughter still struggling, and I will retire when she no longer needs the help
Thank you for this video. I am so glad I came across this. I don’t feel so guilty about my over spending habits ( which I am now doing something about). Grew up in a one parent home ( dad died when I was 12 but even before that money was tight as had a special needs brother ), and once I had money, I spent it on vacations I never had and giving to others. Thank you for all your videos.
Something that seems to be missed is another form of tax on the poor. The volunteer military was conceived the rich to keep their kids out. Men and women in low income and lower middle class often join the military to excape poverty, get college paid, for dental care. I view this as another tax on those families one the wealthy families don't have to pay. They put their lives on hold to serve while trust fund kids collect a monthly check.
First video Ive seen from your channel. Phenomenal. There’s so much I’ve said about my own personal life you’ve hit on. I’ve fallen into those categories so many before me have. I have racked up 20k of credit debt I cannot afford trying to have the life I knew I couldn’t otherwise. I’ve told my therapist I think I was trying to fill the need for the things I couldn’t get when I was younger and satisfying my yearning. I’ve always said I knew college would never be in the cards for me because of my poverty status growing up. Hitting the nail on the head. Great work. I look forward to watching more.
This one guy once called him and his family poor when they had a 20ft by 10ft indoor pool. I dont even like saying my family was poor because we got our first above ground 15ft pool when i was 13-14 i think. Having a pool like that meant you werent poor
I'd be more than willing to give all of my salary to the government if everyone was housed, fed, educated, and had access to healthcare and the country's infrastructure was well taken care of.
I lived in and out of my grandmother's house, and a camper, and was very food insecure at one point. I have an issue with always buying food I can't afford, and constantly eat when I feel a small amount of hunger
Sometimes it's the availablity of lucky options. Sometimes selected few have to be smarter to find those lucky options. Selected few still shows the injustice of the poverty line. I don't care so much about who got out of poverty, why did government let them stay in poverty?
Every couple years prime ministers and presidents kept preaching about getting rid off poverty but then they built anti-homeless benches. After the pandemic they even got rid majority of benches. The safe places for them decreases with each year
The hardest thing for my family has always been cars. We live in the mountains and the public transport ranges from dysfunctional in towns to nonexistent everywhere else. So we have to have cars to work and live. But we never have $20k to buy one actually good car so every three years another car craps out and we buy another 2009 car with 85k miles for $6k. Rinse and repeat. Its infuriating.
While I definitely wouldn't say I "grew up poor" since I'm only in high school and my family's upper middle class now, we definitely used to be poor when I was a kid since my dad was still a student and my mom was a SAHM. They couldn't afford to put me into all the extracurriculars that many of my peers have been pursuing for over a decade, so it still feels like I'm behind, especially when it comes to filling in college resumes.
When you say conservatives are against immigration, are you talking about legal immigration or illegal entry? They’re both two very different things. As a Mexican American, I can tell you that my family does NOT support people crossing the border illegally, because my family worked their tails off to come here legally. And they scrimped and saved and suffered, and now criminals are being given free charter flights, free apartments, and free phones, while poor Americans suffer. So I will say that I am very pro immigration, as are most Americans, but I am not for open borders and people coming here illegally. I’m starting to see the same human traffickers and gang members in the border towns come here so easily, when my family fought so hard to get AWAY from them. I support asylum seekers and using common sense. Open borders invites criminals and chaos. We have a right to protect our citizens.
this is amazing. i need to read through a lot of these comments and finish watching this later when im not so tired. ive never felt so validated and seen before. thank you.
I grew up poor. To the point my parents, too proud to go to food banks, often went hungry so that I could eat.
In college, too proud to ask for help, I survived on two loaves of bread, a pound of bologna, and a pound of cheese. I bought $10 walmart shoes and wore them until they had gaping holes in the soles. I walked 2 miles to a bus stop so I didn't have to pay for two busses to get to work.
Now, I have a well paying job, savings, a partner who also has a good job and savings. My fridge is full of food and I can buy more if I want to. But there is a part of me that can't get over the idea that it could all be taken from me. That in an instant, I could be back in that place where I'm struggling to make rent. I still buy the cheapest groceries, stock my pantry and freezer with meals while I can afford them. I have piles of blankets in case I cant afford to turn the heat on in the winter. I still buy Walmart shoes. I hang on to gifted soaps and such, just in case I can't afford new ones. Growing up and being poor myself is a trauma I won't ever recover from, but it has made me self sufficient in ways many people struggle to achieve themselves
Not to mention the stigma of growing up poor and being bullied by the kids from well-off families. The harm it does and then having to pay for therapy, medications to manage mental health issues, etc.
Getting really sick in the USA is a cause of bankruptcy even for non Americans that have the bad luck of getting sick while visiting/vacationing in America. And I dont say this exaggerating, my aunt and uncle lost everything because he went into cardiac arrest while in America and just getting him to a point where he could travel back to their country bankrupted them. Sure I think if they had bough travel's insurance maybe they would have just lost a lot of money but not actually gone bankrupt, but they didn't so they did went bankrupt. To this day my dad still needs to help my aunt (his sister) economically (even if she has 2 adult kids that also help a bit).
37:10 The Intern thing with it being 'rich white kids'…? Oh boy are there so many issues there… I've heard of some interns from someone I know who were too stuck up and thought their intern assignments were 'below them' and wanted "real work" (said assignments were said real work they'd have to do when they actually did get into the industry though). They were people found from public recruitment, so since there were numerous individuals from the current generations of interns from public recruitment that were problematic… they've decided to only take people who've been recommended by people they know and can be vouched for — so college professors and such. It's such a mess… =-=;;
Well, I always felt pretty rich, I had two parents and they both worked but only one was college educated, my mom, but she lost her job often looking for better paying jobs, my dad would rage at her, and they would eventually divorce after she lost her job again and had to work part time. I always thought we had enough and would buy food for my friends at school who could not afford to eat but we would eventually lose everything because of my belief and the idea money will always be there lol. We lost our house, both parents would save up to go bankrupt and sure I felt sometimes a little broke but I never felt poor poor. I didn't go to a regular college just community and it wasn't until my late 20's I saw rich people and had them as coworkers that I realized… Some people never actually had money issues or health problems or suffered in the ways I did. XD It's not until my 30's I really felt bad for being "poor" but I felt always had enough for the most part, though there was one time if I just had $200 I could have saved my pet's life ;( Now I have so much it's insane that I used to live like I did in the past. Sadly though you can't get back your health or the lives of others even with all the money in the world.
Growing up poor, I always taught myself to think outside of the box. My family has been drowning in debt since they moved out of their parent’s house. I made sure to really orchestrate saving in a way that I can avoid debt. I’m now thankful to be able to help out my family while living on my own 🙏
watching this with negative $130 in my account because of my overspending problem due to growing up in poverty and….yea…its so hard to crawl out of that.
its hard to even save when you're constantly feeling like theres no point because how will i ever even get a better paying job if nobody hires me, how will i be the one to break the cycle of poverty in my family? why even save if its going to go away anyway…
This video did an amazing job articulating SO MUCH of my experience that I was never able to put into words… I grew up a high-wealth area near Seattle as a poor kid in a very poor family. I didn't get to go on school trips to New York or DC, play fun group sports, or join dance or theatre because my family simple couldn't afford extras of any kind. All of my friends spent winter and spring break in places like Hawaii, Europe and the Caribbean, while I stayed home doing crafts, drawing and watching Nickelodeon every day (Which honestly was fun!), BUT there was a huge disconnect that I don't think other kids could really understand. I didn't get a chance to go to college because the minute I was 19 I was kicked out and needed to support myself 100% with working full time. My friends still got to travel and experience fun college life, but you grow a LOT of resentment when they complain about assignments, while I'm over here scraping to make rent every month while having to walk to work because I can't afford a car. The one good thing from all of this? I have a very "Pay it forward" attitude and always help people out when I can. I know how scary or embarrassing a lot of those "omg what am I going to do??!" moments can be and I don't want anyone to have to go through them if I can help it.
when i was j. graduate school to be a therapaist, I had 3 kids and worked. My classmates were amazed at how busy i was and asked me what I did for self-care. I told them that coming to school was self-care. I got to have facinating conversations all weekend without the constand demands of young kids. My daughters would be at their dads and my infant son would be at my parents house for the weekends i was at school (my husband worked weekends) so i also had a break those evenings. My program was 14 weekends per month, about 20hrs each weekend. it was like a mini vacation to me! homework was rough to work into my schedule though
Grew up neglected and abused, and through many years finally managed to get out of it after working off in min wage jobs for over decade.
Started new job where people are so…eloquent. People seem so stable and worked out, when i just started entry job in mid 30s after changing career 3 times so i can slowly get out of poverty.
Once someone asked me what college i went to just to find out i have learned all my skills to do my job myself using internet they scoffed and left me standing. It does make me insecure, as my road to better life was hard and took long time to get there.
Finally planning to learn how to drive next year and i am terrified. I am not from States so luckily have not had risk of going into medical debt.
I’m loving this critique of capitalism from a largely capitalist channel. It reminds me of something, my ex-boyfriend (who was wrong about a lot of things but was right about this) used to frequently drill into my head. “ don’t hate the player. Don’t hate the game… Hate yourself for not knowing how to play it.” As women, it’s important that we know when to fight and when to fawn. It’s unlikely that we escape capitalism in our lifetime as much as I wish we could. The best thing we can do is learn how to play the game while remaining critical of it !
I am not american. And my country is considered "poor" and 'developing". And you'd think this would make people considerate of each other. But here too, if you appear poor by the way you dress or where you live, you are treated like shit. So people spend above their means and buy stuff like iPhones on EMIs just to appear part of the cool, rich crowd.
I think, after being on assistance and getting off assistance, that people who grew up poor spend money quickly because most programs cut you off or reduce your benefits if you have money. Money spent is money saved. If you spend $100 rather than add it to your savings account you retain food stamps, housing, ssi, medical insurance, vs if you lost any of those things you would spend more than $100 and it's not as secure and stable as the benefits. We are rewarded for staying low income and there is absolutely zero education on how to proactively switch to getting off of assistance. Many people are afraid their assets or tax returns will be taken from them to repay past benefits and in some cases they are right. But no one tells you at all how to get off the system and plan ahead. Also, when social workers review your eligibility they ask what your savings/ cash on hand is but they NEVER ask what your debit is so you are again purchased for saving and rewarded for racking up credit cards.
It's not a matter of income. Society polices violent criminal segments of the population, which are disproportionately present in African American and Hispanic communities. It's a racial thing, they have a propensity toward violence which is proven time and again by various studies over the last 50 years. That is what makes them poor.
43 comments
She is so pretty and smart.
I get it. I wasn’t poor growing up, but I might as well have been. I was the oldest, but I got the leftovers and hand-me-downs. I wasn’t allowed to get what I wanted except at birthdays and Christmas, and was grateful I got anything, tho that would be taken from me at any time. I ended up impoverished when my 4 kids were 1 thru 7 and my ex left us. Whole long story, but I was terrified my own children would end up on welfare, so I worked myself like crazy to give them a decent life. I’ve only begun to start saving in the past five years. I’m a senior getting ready to retire, but I have a daughter still struggling, and I will retire when she no longer needs the help
Thank you for this video. I am so glad I came across this. I don’t feel so guilty about my over spending habits ( which I am now doing something about). Grew up in a one parent home ( dad died when I was 12 but even before that money was tight as had a special needs brother ), and once I had money, I spent it on vacations I never had and giving to others. Thank you for all your videos.
Something that seems to be missed is another form of tax on the poor. The volunteer military was conceived the rich to keep their kids out. Men and women in low income and lower middle class often join the military to excape poverty, get college paid, for dental care. I view this as another tax on those families one the wealthy families don't have to pay. They put their lives on hold to serve while trust fund kids collect a monthly check.
First video Ive seen from your channel.
Phenomenal.
There’s so much I’ve said about my own personal life you’ve hit on. I’ve fallen into those categories so many before me have. I have racked up 20k of credit debt I cannot afford trying to have the life I knew I couldn’t otherwise. I’ve told my therapist I think I was trying to fill the need for the things I couldn’t get when I was younger and satisfying my yearning. I’ve always said I knew college would never be in the cards for me because of my poverty status growing up. Hitting the nail on the head. Great work. I look forward to watching more.
This one guy once called him and his family poor when they had a 20ft by 10ft indoor pool. I dont even like saying my family was poor because we got our first above ground 15ft pool when i was 13-14 i think. Having a pool like that meant you werent poor
I'd be more than willing to give all of my salary to the government if everyone was housed, fed, educated, and had access to healthcare and the country's infrastructure was well taken care of.
In my circle of friends you can't really tell who has the highest and lowest paying jobs but you can easily tell who had the richest parents.
the US is such a sh*tshow in aspects like this one, and still, to this day, european countries try to be like america more and more :')
people need to learn dialectical materialism and start organizing!
I lived in and out of my grandmother's house, and a camper, and was very food insecure at one point. I have an issue with always buying food I can't afford, and constantly eat when I feel a small amount of hunger
You got to go to a magnet school… so you weren't really poor. Having no geographical access to that kind of thing is genuine poverty.
Sometimes it's the availablity of lucky options. Sometimes selected few have to be smarter to find those lucky options. Selected few still shows the injustice of the poverty line. I don't care so much about who got out of poverty, why did government let them stay in poverty?
Every couple years prime ministers and presidents kept preaching about getting rid off poverty but then they built anti-homeless benches. After the pandemic they even got rid majority of benches. The safe places for them decreases with each year
why is that we cant read that text? Thomas Paine is the place of change for all of us
jesh, all we have to do, or, could is stand proud that common sense will get us across that river.
rich people use us to dump their old appliances
The hardest thing for my family has always been cars. We live in the mountains and the public transport ranges from dysfunctional in towns to nonexistent everywhere else. So we have to have cars to work and live. But we never have $20k to buy one actually good car so every three years another car craps out and we buy another 2009 car with 85k miles for $6k. Rinse and repeat. Its infuriating.
While I definitely wouldn't say I "grew up poor" since I'm only in high school and my family's upper middle class now, we definitely used to be poor when I was a kid since my dad was still a student and my mom was a SAHM. They couldn't afford to put me into all the extracurriculars that many of my peers have been pursuing for over a decade, so it still feels like I'm behind, especially when it comes to filling in college resumes.
When you say conservatives are against immigration, are you talking about legal immigration or illegal entry? They’re both two very different things. As a Mexican American, I can tell you that my family does NOT support people crossing the border illegally, because my family worked their tails off to come here legally. And they scrimped and saved and suffered, and now criminals are being given free charter flights, free apartments, and free phones, while poor Americans suffer. So I will say that I am very pro immigration, as are most Americans, but I am not for open borders and people coming here illegally. I’m starting to see the same human traffickers and gang members in the border towns come here so easily, when my family fought so hard to get AWAY from them. I support asylum seekers and using common sense. Open borders invites criminals and chaos. We have a right to protect our citizens.
You stole money?!
this is amazing. i need to read through a lot of these comments and finish watching this later when im not so tired. ive never felt so validated and seen before. thank you.
I grew up poor. To the point my parents, too proud to go to food banks, often went hungry so that I could eat.
In college, too proud to ask for help, I survived on two loaves of bread, a pound of bologna, and a pound of cheese. I bought $10 walmart shoes and wore them until they had gaping holes in the soles. I walked 2 miles to a bus stop so I didn't have to pay for two busses to get to work.
Now, I have a well paying job, savings, a partner who also has a good job and savings. My fridge is full of food and I can buy more if I want to. But there is a part of me that can't get over the idea that it could all be taken from me. That in an instant, I could be back in that place where I'm struggling to make rent. I still buy the cheapest groceries, stock my pantry and freezer with meals while I can afford them. I have piles of blankets in case I cant afford to turn the heat on in the winter. I still buy Walmart shoes. I hang on to gifted soaps and such, just in case I can't afford new ones. Growing up and being poor myself is a trauma I won't ever recover from, but it has made me self sufficient in ways many people struggle to achieve themselves
Not to mention the stigma of growing up poor and being bullied by the kids from well-off families. The harm it does and then having to pay for therapy, medications to manage mental health issues, etc.
Getting really sick in the USA is a cause of bankruptcy even for non Americans that have the bad luck of getting sick while visiting/vacationing in America. And I dont say this exaggerating, my aunt and uncle lost everything because he went into cardiac arrest while in America and just getting him to a point where he could travel back to their country bankrupted them. Sure I think if they had bough travel's insurance maybe they would have just lost a lot of money but not actually gone bankrupt, but they didn't so they did went bankrupt. To this day my dad still needs to help my aunt (his sister) economically (even if she has 2 adult kids that also help a bit).
37:10 The Intern thing with it being 'rich white kids'…? Oh boy are there so many issues there… I've heard of some interns from someone I know who were too stuck up and thought their intern assignments were 'below them' and wanted "real work" (said assignments were said real work they'd have to do when they actually did get into the industry though). They were people found from public recruitment, so since there were numerous individuals from the current generations of interns from public recruitment that were problematic… they've decided to only take people who've been recommended by people they know and can be vouched for — so college professors and such. It's such a mess… =-=;;
This really hit home. The overspending is so real, it's really hard to get out of the survival mode. Thank you for educating me on this topic.
11:30 – "The biggest privilege is the privilege of a second chance."
– Ashley Ford
Well, I always felt pretty rich, I had two parents and they both worked but only one was college educated, my mom, but she lost her job often looking for better paying jobs, my dad would rage at her, and they would eventually divorce after she lost her job again and had to work part time. I always thought we had enough and would buy food for my friends at school who could not afford to eat but we would eventually lose everything because of my belief and the idea money will always be there lol. We lost our house, both parents would save up to go bankrupt and sure I felt sometimes a little broke but I never felt poor poor. I didn't go to a regular college just community and it wasn't until my late 20's I saw rich people and had them as coworkers that I realized… Some people never actually had money issues or health problems or suffered in the ways I did. XD It's not until my 30's I really felt bad for being "poor" but I felt always had enough for the most part, though there was one time if I just had $200 I could have saved my pet's life ;( Now I have so much it's insane that I used to live like I did in the past. Sadly though you can't get back your health or the lives of others even with all the money in the world.
Growing up poor, I always taught myself to think outside of the box. My family has been drowning in debt since they moved out of their parent’s house. I made sure to really orchestrate saving in a way that I can avoid debt. I’m now thankful to be able to help out my family while living on my own 🙏
watching this with negative $130 in my account because of my overspending problem due to growing up in poverty and….yea…its so hard to crawl out of that.
its hard to even save when you're constantly feeling like theres no point because how will i ever even get a better paying job if nobody hires me, how will i be the one to break the cycle of poverty in my family? why even save if its going to go away anyway…
This video did an amazing job articulating SO MUCH of my experience that I was never able to put into words… I grew up a high-wealth area near Seattle as a poor kid in a very poor family. I didn't get to go on school trips to New York or DC, play fun group sports, or join dance or theatre because my family simple couldn't afford extras of any kind. All of my friends spent winter and spring break in places like Hawaii, Europe and the Caribbean, while I stayed home doing crafts, drawing and watching Nickelodeon every day (Which honestly was fun!), BUT there was a huge disconnect that I don't think other kids could really understand. I didn't get a chance to go to college because the minute I was 19 I was kicked out and needed to support myself 100% with working full time. My friends still got to travel and experience fun college life, but you grow a LOT of resentment when they complain about assignments, while I'm over here scraping to make rent every month while having to walk to work because I can't afford a car. The one good thing from all of this? I have a very "Pay it forward" attitude and always help people out when I can. I know how scary or embarrassing a lot of those "omg what am I going to do??!" moments can be and I don't want anyone to have to go through them if I can help it.
This makes me want to give up even more. Hooray capitalism:)
when i was j. graduate school to be a therapaist, I had 3 kids and worked. My classmates were amazed at how busy i was and asked me what I did for self-care. I told them that coming to school was self-care. I got to have facinating conversations all weekend without the constand demands of young kids. My daughters would be at their dads and my infant son would be at my parents house for the weekends i was at school (my husband worked weekends) so i also had a break those evenings. My program was 14 weekends per month, about 20hrs each weekend. it was like a mini vacation to me! homework was rough to work into my schedule though
Grew up neglected and abused, and through many years finally managed to get out of it after working off in min wage jobs for over decade.
Started new job where people are so…eloquent. People seem so stable and worked out, when i just started entry job in mid 30s after changing career 3 times so i can slowly get out of poverty.
Once someone asked me what college i went to just to find out i have learned all my skills to do my job myself using internet they scoffed and left me standing. It does make me insecure, as my road to better life was hard and took long time to get there.
Finally planning to learn how to drive next year and i am terrified. I am not from States so luckily have not had risk of going into medical debt.
I’m loving this critique of capitalism from a largely capitalist channel.
It reminds me of something, my ex-boyfriend (who was wrong about a lot of things but was right about this) used to frequently drill into my head. “ don’t hate the player. Don’t hate the game…
Hate yourself for not knowing how to play it.”
As women, it’s important that we know when to fight and when to fawn.
It’s unlikely that we escape capitalism in our lifetime as much as I wish we could.
The best thing we can do is learn how to play the game while remaining critical of it !
I am not american. And my country is considered "poor" and 'developing". And you'd think this would make people considerate of each other. But here too, if you appear poor by the way you dress or where you live, you are treated like shit. So people spend above their means and buy stuff like iPhones on EMIs just to appear part of the cool, rich crowd.
I think, after being on assistance and getting off assistance, that people who grew up poor spend money quickly because most programs cut you off or reduce your benefits if you have money. Money spent is money saved. If you spend $100 rather than add it to your savings account you retain food stamps, housing, ssi, medical insurance, vs if you lost any of those things you would spend more than $100 and it's not as secure and stable as the benefits. We are rewarded for staying low income and there is absolutely zero education on how to proactively switch to getting off of assistance. Many people are afraid their assets or tax returns will be taken from them to repay past benefits and in some cases they are right. But no one tells you at all how to get off the system and plan ahead. Also, when social workers review your eligibility they ask what your savings/ cash on hand is but they NEVER ask what your debit is so you are again purchased for saving and rewarded for racking up credit cards.
It's actually heartbreaking being in college seeing all your peers getting help from their family while you are the one helping your family.
This is why it’s so detrimental that Trump won the election (and the Senate and House). 😢
Anybody do the "this (item) costs (x) amount of work hours"?
…Feels shit knowing that a regular sandwich at jimmy john's essentially costs an hour of my life…
Anyway, that's something I feel you have to come from a particular background to do automatically
I feel seen and acknowledged! All my depression is gone lol
42:30
It's not a matter of income. Society polices violent criminal segments of the population, which are disproportionately present in African American and Hispanic communities. It's a racial thing, they have a propensity toward violence which is proven time and again by various studies over the last 50 years. That is what makes them poor.
39:00
Who TF shares computers in 2024. You can get a used PC that gets 99% of everyday tasks done for $50.