It’s Expensive to be Poor

One trucker I worked with briefly one day brought up this interesting quote:

It’s expensive to be poor.

The financially starved often rely on payday loans, credit cards, “bad credit” auto loans where interest rates can be as high as 39% on an unreliable vehicle, and other high interest debt to make ends meet. Financial institutions endure the risk of extending cash to risky debt holders for a larger reward. The average person’s financial illiteracy and desire for social acceptance is a gold mine for risk loving financial firms. I worked with many people paying 19-39% interest for their already falling apart and rapidly depreciating Jeeps, Ford Escapes, and Dodge Rams- simply because everyone else at work had them too, and in belief you need a domestic SUV or truck to live in Alberta. Or with soccer mom logic:

Anything not big and high off the ground with AWD or 4×4 = instant death.

Their view is that as long as they can afford $x/month, and as long as it’s not breaking down right now, then it is a worthwhile purchase.

Many women just daydream about lining up as many lonely men as possible and crave their money and/or attention. Then, fuck and start having kids with no career or other financial means in sight. As an obvious result, they lose oppertunities to advance their careers and spend not only the taxes and child support money of the hardworking, but any savings they have to fund this desire.

The poor often suffer from financial mismanagement, such as impulsively buying expensive snacks, handbags, clothes, boxed meals of poor quality and quantity but high price, drugs, too many smokes, and other items of questionable value. Convenience stores, especially those in oil towns, take advantage of the impulsiveness of the average financially starved customer- stocking many pre-prepared meals of poor quality and quantity for high prices. A “Hungry Man” boxed microwave meal or a tiny cold burger the size of a Big Mac that do not even fill you up can cost as much as $7 each plus taxes. At one restaurant I asked if I were to be charged for an additional coffee in a mug of minuscule size, and the waitress quoted it at $3.95. I immediately refused, and the girl beside me remarked:

You are 23, own two condos, and a high end BMW. Why are you so cheap about a $3.95 coffee?

My response was simple in theory:

$3.95 I don’t spend means now I am $3.95 richer. That coffee is also puny and kind of tastes like shit. 

Poor financial decisions aside, apart from those with disabilities preventing them to work, many are poor simply from laziness and the lack of ambition. They incur a high opportunity cost of lost income when instead of opting to work, they choose to sit at home. Or, instead of looking to advance, they simply accept where they are, and point a finger at the better off as if they owe them something. The minimum wage debate is a perfect example of this, where workers feel a sense of entitlement rather than looking to upgrade their experience and skill sets. One business owner once told me:

Laziness is the most expensive tax.