[djsumdog]

When everything is going to shit, people are in the hospital and you barely have enough food stamps to feed your kids ...

You can go to a movie. Are you going to really fault someone for that, or taking their partner to a restaurant, using what little they have, to just try and forget how bad things are for a few hours?!

It's not like they can just stop being poor.

[mberning]

I don't begrudge anybody their small pleasures in life. I also think they can do what they want with their money.

But, when the topic of wealth redistribution comes up I do start to have a lot more questions about what people want to do with the money. After all, it's not their money. They didn't earn it. Somebody else did. I think it's pretty fair to at least have the conversation. I absolutely hate the "helpless poor people" trope and the idea that if they just had more money everything would be better. How often do good and well meaning ideas have horrible and long lasting consequences that were not intended.

[jnbiche]

For very poor people, just having more money can often make a huge difference in their lives:

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/08/23/214210692/the-...

There's actually a mounting volume of convincing evidence that cash grants to poor people are much more effective than random charity programs of equivalent value. Because poor people often know what they need more than some paper pusher in a faraway city.

[Jarwain]

I wonder whether there is a difference in attitudes or money usage for poor people in Kenya or other developing nations, vs those who are poor in developed nations like the US.

Although you did say 'very' poor people, this was the thought that popped into my mind.

[jnbiche]

I wonder the same thing. I think there is a study being done now in the US on cash grants, so there may be some data. But not nearly as much as there is from Africa.

[djsumdog]

> They didn't earn it.

And what exactly does Zuckerburge do earn the millions he makes every year? Personally, nothing. Everything him and Gates et. al. did was leverage the capital of people they convinced to work for them.

When I worked in an office in Seattle where a 1/bdr was $1800/month, I would watch a janitor come around each day and empty my trash can. I'm sure he made a fraction of what I did, but honestly, I'm sure he did more work .. or at least the same amount. What I do is more difficult, and I was lucky to be raised in a family that had the means to send me to college and I was lucky to pick a career field that earned me that money.

So much of what we have isn't earned. It's more by chance. The major determining factor in your succeeding (school, career, etc.) is determined before you are born. If you're born into poverty, it is very very difficult to get out.

To quote George Carlin, it's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe in it.

[JakeTheAndroid]

And you're suggesting that purchasing a funny card game that has value over time should be a disqualifying factor?