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by jquery
3120 days ago
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Past college, living hand-to-mouth is in the USA is largely an issue of financial education and self-control. I was living hand-to-mouth when I met my wife, who made half what I did and had substantial savings. Get housemates instead of keeping a house to yourself. Get roommates instead of a room to yourself. Get rid of your subscriptions. And so on. Sustenance is remarkably cheap unless you're in poor health. I blame this lack of financial education on our failing high schools and bad parenting. And a stigma against judging others for poor financial choices (I see people in this thread lauding the gifts the charity recipients plan to buy). |
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Like you, I wish they taught a lot of these skills in high school, but just like the math they teach in high school -- it will be out of reach for a lot of people. Those are the people who need the skills the most. We could stand in judgement over those people, but to what purpose? The solution is far more complex than it appears.
As I get older, though, I am confronted with the spectre of real poverty. What happens when you get ill and you can't afford the treatment? What happens if you live in a country where there is no social net to fall back upon? And as I've watched friends that I grew up with start to suffer from mental illness, what happens when your own brain betrays you?
No amount of skills will save you from these plagues. Unless you are mercifully run over by a number 72 bus while you are in your prime, eventually you too will succumb. When you are beyond your ability; have reached the ends of your wits and don't know what to do; how do you want others to act?