Ways being broke makes cost of living higher than if you have money

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
121

I can give examples from my own life of the high cost of being poor. When I was in my late teens and 20s, I was very poor. I had moved out of my parents when I was 18. I worked a lot of low pay jobs, mostly as a cook in restaurants. There is zero margin in that life; if you get sick, you’re not going to a doctor and if something breaks, you don’t own that anymore. I couldn’t keep up with my car insurance payments and lost it, but I still need to get to work, so I still need to drive.

You drive home from closing kitchen at 2am enough times and you get pulled over: looks like your drivers license has been suspended because you don’t have car insurance. You can always get away with this once: you go to court and claim that you didn’t know your license was suspended, so no fine, but you can’t drive until you get a new license. Of course, you can’t pay for insurance and you still need to get to work, so you drive on a suspended license, now when you get pulled over, you’re going to jail and your piece of shit car is going to impound. You can’t afford any fine and you sure as shit can’t afford to get your car out of impound, so you get out on your own recognizance, skip your court date and abandon the car in the impound lot. Basically, being poor is illegal in America and one day or other, you’re going to end up in jail.

122

Even if you live in an apartment, having steady income and reserves vs. not can make a difference. We get a 15-month lease, and because we are willing to sign on that long, we get $35 off each month. But we wouldn’t get that if we, first, didn’t have a good credit rating, and second, weren’t in a position to make a 15-month commitment. If we didn’t have savings to get us through a couple of months when one of us might be sick and off work, or we might have an extraordinary expense, we wouldn’t feel safe signing a 15-month lease. In fact, there are some people in my complex who are paying month-to-month, either because their credit rating is terrible, or because they can’t be sure they will have rent money from one month to the next. They pay almost 150% of what we do.

And we actually have a little more apartment than we strictly need. We have an extra bedroom that serves for storage, an office, and in a pinch a guest room-- or really, crash space for friends-- “guest room” is overstating is a little. The point is, we will never have to lay out $100 a month for a storage unit, and yes, it came up-- when my mother died, we had a crapload of her stuff here for a year while I went through it and disposed of, transformed, or gave to other family members the things in my own time, instead of rushing to do so in a few days because I had nowhere to put it. And it’s nice to be able to house friends, even if it’s not in style. We had a friend in the room for a couple of weeks while he got back on his feet after leaving an emotionally abusive boyfriend.

FWIW, because we can do that, we maintain a support system, so if we ever are in need, we have someone to help us. That’s not why we do it, but it works at every strata of society. Rich people don’t live in vacuums. Sometimes one of them will get into momentary trouble, but he has a rich friend to make a very low interest, or interest-free loan, with favorable pay-back terms that a bank would never give.

123

That’s not true at all. The way it works is that you are on the hook for the inspection fee, regardless of whether or not it passes or fails. If you happen to be somewhere that they can fix the non-compliant item, they can do that as part of the inspection, saving you a trip and letting you pass.

And there’s not really a “second opinion” either- it’s a pass/fail inspection with clear standards. They don’t just eyeball your brakes and tell you they fail, they go drive your car at a prescribed speed, hit the brakes and see if it stops within some prescribed distance.

Example- if I go to my local quick-lube place for my inspection, and they find that my license plate bulb is out, I can pay them to replace it and get a passing score, or I can accept the failed inspection and do it myself. If the tires or emissions hardware are judged to be noncompliant, then I don’t have a choice but to accept the failure and go get new tires.

At no point am I on the hook to have them do it, except that it’s possible that it might be more convenient/cheaper overall to have them do it as part of the initial inspection.

124

well driving without insurance is illegal, driving on a suspended license is illegal, not showing up in court is illegal, do you really think being poor is illegal?

125

My brother has an extremely expensive Prius, which, BTW, he paid for without financing. He lives in CA, and there, he Prius gets inspections waived for the first 10 years.

I also paid for my last two cars without financing. They cost about 1/3 less, altogether, without paying financing fees. What’s more, I bought a brand new car last time, and so everything was under warranty.

Being able to afford comprehensive coverage is nice too. I was the victim of a hit-&-run (actually, the guy was driving a Mack, and there’s a possibility he never saw me, and didn’t know he hit me). Got all the work done for the price of the deductible, which I had in savings. I can’t imagine that happening to me with just collision, and no savings.

It is in some places. Being homeless is essentially illegal. You can’t sleep outside, and they’ve been arresting people (of course, now they get to be in a warm jail, where they are fed), you get chased out of derelict buildings, and you even get chased out of public parks during the day, just for being there “too long,” even if you aren’t sleeping.

I think it’s true that you are a heck of a lot more likely to get arrested for something if you are poor. And when rich people do get arrested, for something serious, not something technical, they usually get off. Think how often rich people get convicted of charges like murder or rape.

126

I wonder how much of that is corruption, vs. merely having the resources to hire lawyers to successfully navigate the legal system (which is an issue outside of criminal stuff- think wills and estates too) in a way that is more likely to come out with a positive outcome?

127

Some 4.3 million fall into the “part time for economic reasons” bin. While historically low as a percent of the workforce, that’s still a lot of people. In part due to the healthcare cliffs we’ve built in.

128

I don’t think I saw this one mentioned yet- driving an old crummy car while making payments costs more in insurance. Driving a beater that’s paid for only requires liability coverage, while driving any car with payments requires full coverage (at least around here, in Georgia). The cost difference is quite significant.

129

Generally comp wouldn’t cover a hit and run; it would be collision or more likely, uninsured motorist coverage. And you should be out for the deductible unless you shared some of the fault.

130

OK; so comp isn’t the same thing as “full.” All I know is that I told the agent I wanted “full” coverage, and he told me I didn’t need that because it wasn’t being financed, and the law required only “collision.” I said, I wanted another car if an uninsured driver hit me, of if, gawd forbid, I did something stupid. He said it would cost more, as though I didn’t know that, and I said, yeah, I still wanted glass, medical, etc.

The truck hitting me gave me whiplash, which I will never make fun of again, because holy crap did that hurt. It hurt so much that if someone had told me when it was at its worst, I was going to be in that much pain for the rest of my life, I would have killed myself, and that’s not hyperbole.

Anyway, thank gawd I have medical, because they are picking up everything my health insurance isn’t.

The repair was $1,400, which was about 14% of the value of the car, but when all is said and done, I’m going to have about $8,000 in medical bills (there was lots of imaging), and I’m not even sure what my health insurance is covering, but I know the co-pay on one medication I needed was $78, which I had to come up with, then I submitted the bill to my insurance (along with the tow I had to pay, because the car was a hazard, and my insurance-sponsored company couldn’t get there for 90 minutes, so I had to use the police tow), and 8 days later, the direct-deposited reimbursement.

Imagine if I couldn’t come up with $228 out-of-pocket, and wait 8 days to be reimbursed? Or didn’t have other health insurance, and ran through the money the insurance allowed?

Also, I’m getting reimbursed for lost time at work, because at my job, “my” hours are mine, and my supervisor can say that yes, I wasn’t there when I was supposed to be. The sorts of jobs on the lower rungs are structured differently, so that if you can’t make it, those aren’t your hours, and you just aren’t put on the schedule, so you didn’t technically lose anything. And I have a boss who is willing to take a call from an insurance company, and assert that yes, I missed work, or take as much time as it takes to explain the scheduling system. Your 20-year-old boss at the gas station/convenience store probably won’t do that.

131

The law generally requires only liability, which covers you if you cause damages to another person. Full coverage is liability and collision and comprehensive. Collision covers damage to your car as a result of a collision - for example, if you drive into a tree. Comprehensive covers non-collision damage- like when a tree falls on your car.

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132

Losing car insurance because late on payment too many times is a horrible feelting. I’ve been there more than once. It’s really hard when there are so many bills but no or too little income coming in. At one point in my life, I was working a full-time and a part time job and selling plasma and still losing money because of bills. It was a heartbreaker of a life but hey, I had a job.

133

Yes because America puts poor people in a position where they have to break the law to survive. Mothers get arrested for abandoning their children because they have to go to work. Homeless Tanya McDowell got five years for enrolling her child in the wrong school district. Americans see poverty as a moral failing and treat the poor as deviants.

134

plenty of poor people don’t break the law to survive. Some people just make bad choices and don’t want to accept responsibility.

135

Starting, of course, with having the bad judgement to not have money.

136

My parish runs a shelter for homeless families. In the beginning, it was up in the schoolrooms in our 100+ yr old church. Because of the dangers of having a single stairs to go out side, there was no smoking allowed. Many people would prefer to sleep in their cars, with their children!, instead of not smoking inside after the last smoke break.

I remember one family that scraped together to buy a used car. Of course, they couldn’t afford insurance. So when their teenaged son wrecked it, they were right back were they started.

I’ve known people who buy new cars because they could get into a new car (with 7 year financing) cheaper than they could replace the tires on their perfectly fine car. All they needed was tires, but they got sucked into paying 7 years at high interest for a car they didn’t need instead of financing the tires.

Don’t even get me started on Rent-to-own.They should see that they’re paying triple for something that they did without yesterday and could do without tomorrow. They don’t need a new 60" TV for $3000 when they could go next door to Goodwill and find a 40" for $39.99.

They get their tax refunds and splurge on stupid crap instead of buying down their debt.

StG

137

Or being born poor or not white, just bad judgement really. If you’re lucky, you get to die in the class you were born into in America.

138

In many instances one must be employed to be eligible for government benefits like food stamps. By making it difficult for the poor to maintain transportation it makes it difficult to be employed which makes it difficult to survive without breaking the law. That’s how quite a few able-bodied people wind up in homeless shelters and eating in soup kitchens.

Yes, some poor people manage to survive without breaking the law. Many don’t. And once you start sliding down that slope the slope just gets steeper.

139

And on a dealer-new car that would have cost $14,000 to replace, “full” was sure as heck what I wanted. I had two accidents on my record where I was at fault, in 33 years of driving, but one was 22 years ago, and the other was 13 years ago; the more recent one was a fender-bender. I’d never had a license suspension; once, after the accident 22 yrs ago, has 2 points on my license, but that was the only time I had points, and I wasn’t impaired (the cops tested me). I have NEVER had a moving violation, other than two written warnings for busted lights. I got stopped once for passing in a no-passing zone, but only got a verbal warning. Never had a DUI.

I got a really low rate notwithstanding the full coverage. But I don’t know how many times we went back and forth with “I want”/“You need.”

140

It’s also quite possible for a person to be arrested of something they didn’t do and, being poor, be unable to afford bail, which would allow them to go free while waiting for trial. Then they have several shitty options to choose from. Option 1 is to stay in jail, but then they’ll lose their job. Oh, but there’s option 2: maybe they could ask a friend or family member to put up bail? Of course, their friends or family members are likely to be poor, too, so that might involve a payday loan or something equally financially punitive. So, third option is to just plead guilty and GTFO of jail so that at least they can keep their job…which they’re going to want to keep if they’ve plead guilty because getting hired at a new job just became much more difficult.

But, no. We don’t have systems that punish people for being poor. Not at all.