[BonesJustice]

As with many things in life, habits play a huge role.

People with low incomes have little choice but to budget responsibly or go into crippling debt. Once you get into the habit of spending responsibly, it’s easy to continue that habit even as your income rises. You’re used to making what you earn go a long way.

On the other hand, if your attitude is, “yeah, maybe I’m not making much now, but I should totally be making fat stacks in a couple years,” then your poor spending habits are likely to continue. You’ll go into debt with the expectation that you’ll be able to pull yourself out of it as your income rises. But living beyond your means is a very hard habit to break. You start to rationalize: “hey, I should have a much better lifestyle making $100k than I did at $50k.” Except, well, you weren’t really living off $50k; you were living off $50k plus a lot of high-interest credit.

[jimmaswell]

> People with low incomes have little choice but to budget responsibly or go into crippling debt.

Not at all, poor people waste their whole paychecks on lottery tickets and such all the time. They just end up never having any savings.

[elipsey]

>> poor people waste their whole paychecks on lottery tickets and such all the time.

All of them, all the time? More than other people? Evidence?

[jimmaswell]

I didn't say all of them, "all the time" is an idiom, I didn't say more than other people, and if you want some evidence, hang around a gas station for ten minutes.

[dd36]

Or hopelessness looks for hope through the lottery. As opposed to the hopelessness being caused by the lottery.

[BonesJustice]

I suppose it depends on whether expected future debt is considered ‘debt’.

If you have no savings, then it’s very likely you’ll still go into crippling debt eventually; at best, you’re staving it off until retirement. At that point, cheap credit is probably not going to be as readily available.

But I get your meaning. Yes, there is definitely an in-between where people can spend their entire income without accumulating immediate debt (social debt and future debt not withstanding).