#poor economics

[brunhielda]

Personal pet peeve- use the end of the roll of toilet paper.

Yes- it is stuck to the roll, pick at it and pull it off.

Yes- it is ripped and scraggly. Tuck all those pieces inside a fold, or maybe inside two sheets from the next roll. They are still paper that will absorb liquid. They will still do their job.

And for goodness sakes! Don’t leave the end there and stack a new roll on top. That is the most cowardly way out. Either use it or don’t, but in any case remove and replace!

I know it’s a tiny piece of paper that will easily decompose but wasting even that straggly end eats at me.

I may have some issues from being poor my whole life. Eh.

[puppyudderly-dreamy]

"man, every trans woman i meet has a shitty bed and small apartment and no money let's make fun of them for that, let's get self congratulatory assfaces in the reblogs saying they'll buy her a blanket, let's all point and laugh at the poor girl who is systemically discriminated against and therefore more likely to end up poor, unemployed, and homeless, isn't that so funny?????"

you guys talk about our poverty the way conservatives talk about iq

[econrenuka]

Mini Book Reviews

Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty (2011)

★★★★☆

By: Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo

This was actually a fantastic read. I thought it really hit the sweet spot between being a pop economics book and being quite academic. For each topic, I really liked how the authors clearly stated their opinion but also acknowledged the other side of the argument in each case. The studies cited were also clear, and if there were any weaknesses in the analysis, the authors always stated them while arguing that there are still good conclusions to be drawn. I could tell that Banerjee and Duflo are true researchers. I didn't have to agree with every one of their arguments, but I understood their points clearly and could reiterate their arguments. I thought the titles of many sections were eye-catching, and enjoyed the overall organization of the book as well. However, it didn't feel boring, and like a laundry list of development papers. Each section had a cohesive theme, which made it an exciting and fulfilling read. I can see why it's a must-read for any student interested in development economics.

2. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (2005)

★★☆☆☆

By: Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

I know I'm the last person on earth to read this, but I just put it off. Reading it now, I was actually very surprised to realize it had not aged well. I think the chapter on the link between abortion and crime could be particularly interesting now, as Roe v. Wade has been overturned, but generally I found the arguments tenuous and not very academically grounded. It didn't feel like each chapter had multiple papers that could support the arguments. It felt like often, the authors were making some big leaps based solely on their own research with no sense of the literature as a whole. I also think it felt incredibly disorganized. The authors state in the beginning there is no unifying thread throughout, but I think that the randomness of the topics wasn't satisfying to read. They introduce a lot of their findings in the introduction and then repeat many parts later. They also jump between topics quickly. I found myself getting confused at times as to whether I had accidentally skipped parts of the book. Lastly, I thought all the snippets from the New York Times and other papers talking about how "ah-mazing" Levitt is as an economist and a thinker were a little awkward. It felt a bit self-indulgent although I know it was likely Dubner's take on Levitt as a person. I felt it was unnecessary and awkward.

I think it was a good book in 2005 to introduce readers to the breadth of economics. I know many probably still think of economics as solely focused on business and finance. I think this book probably did a great job of disabusing people of that notion. However, I think it potentially made it seem like economists just draw connections based on correlations when that is exactly what I think we strive not to do. This is obviously a personal opinion, and I think the book is great in terms of what it did do: getting people interested in broad questions.

Next up for mini-reviews!

Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom by Katherine Eban

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

[liberaljane]

Nothing more expensive than being poor.

Digital illustration of the back of a person's jacket. There's a James Baldwin quote that reads, "Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor'

[baldwinheights]

[yeoldenews]

A mother's word for word transcription of the imaginary phone call her four-year-old made to Santa Claus in 1911.

(source: The Harbor Beach Times, December 22, 1911.)

Through some outrageous case of serendipity I found a recording of another phone call this same child made 60 years later. Though I have to say his choice of conversational partner is a definite downgrade from the first call.

[acediscowlng]

still on my spn rewatch, and like. okay. i am not usamerican so i am definitely missing a lot of things here so i haven't mentioned it until now. but there's also something to be said about the class disparity of supernatural. how the hunter life which is both poor and rural is contrasted with the apple pie life which is usually life in the suburbs or the city. and how poverty in rural america is valorized and idealized as somehow more worldly, more knowledgeable, and ultimately more moral than the normal world.

[bitchesgetriches]

Share this post with someone who needs to hear it and read more at BitchesGetRiches.com!

[usernamesarehard1]

[tomurakii]

I kind of hate all the comparisons between kipperlily and like. Those fuckass "affirmative action fucks me over I wish I was [minority] so it would be easier" people because none of that. Is what she said. She said the bad kids already had more experience with adventuring before they got to augefort and it meant they had an advantage. Which is true. Yeah Riz was lower-class but his mum was a COP. Riz, Kristen and Fig had parents who were heroes (Sandra-Lynn is an active ranger, Kristen's parents are paladins, Sklonda is a rogue), Adaine's family was super rich and politically influential, Fabian had both. Gorgug's the only one who wasn't actively at an advantage [IN THE CONTEXT OF HAVING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HEROISM] and she didn't have shit to say about him. Kipperlily was the first person in her family to try heroism, the bad kids are largely legacy admissions.

Additionally to the people comparing it to the "anti-affirmative action" crowd: do you know what affirmative action is. The bad kids didn't receive special consideration on their admissions to aguefort or scholarships or additional financial support or extended assessment times or anything. How could she be mad about affirmative action if none of these people received affirmative action. What they DID have was knowledge about their classes that started much earlier than high school, which is what Kipperlily said in her file that she thought grading should be adjusted for because she did not have that.

To me it's less like affirmative action and more like augefort is like an IQ test. They pretend that it's fair and objective, but you can be taught how to do those things from a younger age, and if your parents took the time to teach you pattern recognition and shit then you'll do better on an IQ test than someone who wasn't trained for it and everyone will act like that makes you innately smarter when it doesn't. It just means someone taught you how to do that earlier.

Barring Gorgug, every one of the bad kids had access to information about heroism and their class at a younger age than Kipperlily did, which primed them for success in their classes. Every one of them got additional information about mysteries from their families (and even direct battle-tactics training from Bill), Riz especially with getting classified info out of his mum. Kipperlily does not have hero relatives. She's the first in her family line to attend a hero school. She knew nothing about it before her first day, meanwhile Kristen was already the chosen of Helio, Adaine had already been attending the best wizard school in the country, Fabian had already spent his whole life training with his father, and Riz was already involved in solving mysteries using info and tactics he got from his parents.

They aren't necessarily "privileged" (except Fabian and Adaine), but Kipperlily didn't say they were, she said that in the specific context of attending a hero school they had a prior-knowledge advantage. Saying they didn't is like comparing the grades of a kid who's academic career started with preschool with a kid who didn't attend until middle school and acting like one of them wasn't better prepared.

[3liza]

I think it must be for the lack of going outside of your room on this website that debates about personal presentation and appearance literally never have any material analysis. sorry it's counterrevolutionary to shave my legs or wear makeup or a bra or style my hair in certain ways or "worry" about visible signs of aging but have some of you just never encountered real world situations where those things caused measurable problems dealing with other people, jobs, money, respectability, access to resources, or the ability to influence important situations? this starts happening when you go outside a lot. there's a debate on my dash rn about balding and finasteride in which not a single person has mentioned the potential negative social outcomes of losing your hair and how that can affect socioeconomic status and personal risk. maybe someone doesn't need to be "vain" to care about keeping their hair and consider the risks of medication for it. maybe they've seen how bald people get treated and referred to and made a cost benefit calculation that they can't afford, sometimes literally, to eat that cost, with everything else they've got going on. maybe I wear makeup when I have to go talk to doctors and other gatekeepers because people make assumptions about your class and mental status when you have "bad skin" and "eye bags". maybe a lot of women who wear uncomfortable restrictive bras and shave whatever and buy skin products and do gua sha have already been sharply punished when someone saw leg hair or a mustache or puffy greasy skin or god forbid their nipple through their shirt. not everyone can just say "fuck it, I can afford to eat one more social cost that will measurably impact my ability to get medical treatment or pay rent". sorry this sounds like an economics lecture, that's because it is

if you are about to tell me a long story about how you personally have not been affected by perceptions of your appearance actually so you can conclude it never happens at all, please don't. sometimes you get lucky, that's it. and on this website I think it's less likely that you're lucky and more likely that you're oblivious

[davidaugust]

[balkanradfem]

So, it's chestnut foraging season again! And I'm having some moral struggles about it. Let's discuss.

Few years back, while roaming the forest, I found an excellent chestnut foraging stuff; it was so good I found I could gather 10 kg of chestnuts a day if I appeared there at the brink of dawn. I gifted a lot of chestnuts to the plant lady, who was impressed, and asked me to show her where I found them. I took her to the spot, and she said 'we could sell these. I can put out an add'. And that sounded daunting, but I said okay!

At first she was doing the administrative part of work, finding customers and managing the communications, and I was collecting and delivering chestnuts, but then she grew tired of it, so I took over completely, made my own add and was able to sell them just fine.

Then, the market prices of all food, including chestnuts, rose high up, as in, doubled. The plant lady urged me to up the price of my chestnuts, because they were now dirt cheap in comparison to anything else on the market, and I thought about it, and decided, no. I hate rising in prices, this little chestnut thing is the only price I can control, and I can decide for it to stay the same. It was a bit insane business-wise, because I am impoverished, but I am not letting poverty control my moral standing! The price stayed the same.

The year after, prices rose again, and I still remained stubborn, and the plant lady was trying to convince me that I am not doing a good deed; chestnuts are a luxury item, they're not being bought by people in poverty who would benefit from cheap food, what I'm doing is only going to attract resellers and other people will capitalize on my work. To this I said, well, I'm refusing to sell any quantity over 10kg to a single person, so they won't be able to capitalize that much. And I knew people who I was taking the chestnuts to were just taking them home to their families, or even asked me to split them in multiple bags to give to their neighbours and cousins. So I kept the price low.

This year, I'm sickly, having financial issues that are worse than before, still having pain in my arm and can't walk for long, and I thought, ugh. Maybe I should up the prices a little and it would make my life slightly easier. It would still be the cheapest thing on the market but I'd be less stressed. But then I went into the forest, and I forgot all of my struggles. It felt so good to hunt around for the first fallen chestnuts. I climbed a hill. I discovered a new secret spot. I found a chicken-of-the-woods mushroom. I saw a salamander. Tiniest frog ever was letting me see her. And I got a message from someone who bought chestnuts from me last year, asking if I had them again. And I didn't have whatever it takes to tell this person I've upped the price. I was like 'yeah I can get the chestnuts to you. They still cost the same amount'.

So then I had to tell the plant lady my decision, and she is SO disappointed. Her vibe was like 'you are putting yourself in situation where only resellers will benefit from this!' and I'm laughing like, don't worry about it, I'm at peace with my decision. But now I feel bad because she thinks I'm dumb T_T.

And I don't know what the right decision is. I hate capitalism, I hate the idea that the price of something can change even though it's the same item, it hasn't changed, it isn't worth more, it doesn't cost me more to gather it, so just because the state of economy is worse, and the world is going to shit, now it's going to cost more? But it is also ridiculous that on the market, the price of the chestnuts is not only double, but 4 times of what I sell them for. It feels so silly! How are people selling them for such a high price? But from their standpoint, it is me who is silly, for giving them away so cheaply.

So I'm going to see what is your collective opinion! I'm curious.

oh and btw what I'm doing is 100% illegal, we're discussing the morality of me doing illegal black market shit. Other foragers are doing it illegally too so we're equals.

[somerandomg33k]

Just saying....

Just a friendly reminder, I will forever hate Capitalism. Capitalism requires there to be poverty to function. It needs there to be poverty to serve as a threat to keep workers working crappy jobs to avoid homelessness. That is why the homelessness sweeps, even in Democrat strongholds and progressive cities. Because the Democrats are still Capitalists. And strongly in favor of Capitalism.

And I have several friends in poverty right now for many reasons. including each of their own disabilities. Can't work and thus in poverty.

One friend knows there is something wrong with them medical. But can't see a doctor because they are uninsured. They still have $8k of medical debt from their previous doctor visits. And they have no hope of paying that off because they have to beg online every two weeks just to pay for food and bills.

So sorry to those that are in favor of Capitalism. But if you are in favor of Capitalism, you are an enemy of mine. Just saying.

[amid-fandoms]

once again rewatching the soup video and im obsessed with phil, certified soup hater, enjoying a cup of sainsbury’s boujee ass soup and dan calling him out on that he truly is the people’s spoiled princess

[lastcatghost]

The most absurd propaganda shit I see is when some magazine or newspaper runs an article of money management advice from someone who's wealthy.

The ultra rich, especially those born into excess wealth always seem to be the people with the worst money management skills out there.

I want grocery shopping tips to save from a single parent with many dependents and yet don't qualify for stamps, let them tell me their tips for stretching the buck, not some mf who's never actually had to work and worry trying to tell those they exploit to just cut out all luxuries, and somehow being more miserable will magically save enough to buy a house