Being Poor - John Scalzi

[railfancwb]

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/
 

A sobering autobiographical blog by a well respected and award winning science fiction author who grew up poor, with many reader comments. 
 

[gwalchmai]

Sounds like just about everybody I knew growing up. We never considered ourselves poor, though. 

[janice6]

1 hour ago, railfancwb said:

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/
 

A sobering autobiographical blog by a well respected and award winning science fiction author who grew up poor, with many reader comments. 
 

One day My wife and I were checking out at Savers.  The teen girl in front of us had a pair of jeans and tennis shoes on the counter.  She couldn't pay for both so she told the clerk to put the shoes back.

I told the clerk to put her bill on my tab.  I didn't say anything to her.  She took her jeans and shoes and stopped in the entryway.  When we left the store, she came to us crying and thanked us for what we did.  I felt bad to have to have her go through that.  I told her is was our pleasure.

She was still thanking us while we left, but now she was smiling.

Sometimes, the littlest thing makes the biggest difference.

[janice6]

1 hour ago, gwalchmai said:

Sounds like just about everybody I knew growing up. We never considered ourselves poor, though. 

Most people don't feel poor until some ******* tells them they are.

[Borg warner]

1 hour ago, railfancwb said:

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/
 

A sobering autobiographical blog by a well respected and award winning science fiction author who grew up poor, with many reader comments. 
 

I did not grow up poor but my Dad grew up poor and even though his parents didn't make much money, my grandmother kept a garden and my Grandfather kept bees and there were hazelnuts and blueberry's on their property and my Grandfather worked for a mine that provided housing so that they were able to save money to send my dad to college and he became and aeronautical engineer and eventually made good money but the mentality of having grown up poor stayed with him and he was frugal all his life.

And as for me, I guess I was a typical spoiled 60's generation kid and and never saved any money or planned for the future but when I retired I was still able to live comfortably on social security until Biden became president and now my expenses are starting to exceed my income and now I could write a book about what it's like to be poor.

In my book  could tell about what it's like to not be able to eat at restaurants like I always used to be able to do not, even fast food places anymore, or go to movies or concerts or drive my car anywhere or travel anywhere but to the grocery store or to medical appointments and half the time I take the bus to save gas and wear on the car that has to last me the rest of my life because I can't afford to put any money into savings anymore to be able to buy another car because like everything else, the cost of use cars has more than doubled.

And all this happened in just a few short years and it's the people at the lowest income levels  (Who Democrats like Biden are supposed to care about) who suffer the most unless they happen to be illegal "immigrants".