Being poor is growing up between the trailer park and the dump.

Being poor is skipping homework to help repair the $600 car so dad can make it to work tomorrow.

Being poor is your mother crying over a $100 invoice for the dental service you just received for the first time in living memory.

Being poor is quitting junior college early, because your Pell Grant ran out, and a $12.15/hr opportunity is over double your fast-food wage.

Being poor is never going back.

Being poor is 3-years-old glasses and squinting from the front row.

Being poor is _definitely_ going to put some money in the savings account next month.

Being poor is getting pulled over just for your car and hair looking ratty.

Being poor is 2 nights in jail because of a clerical error.

Being poor is realizing years later that you still live like you're poor.

Being poor is reading about VCs and ICOs and funding rounds on HN and thinking how huge an improvement just a tiny, tiny fraction of that money could make in your life.

You need to talk to someone who grew up in the DDR or the CCCP to get some perspective (although I bet people from the so called third world would have quite something to add, too!). I am a little better as I grew up in socialist Hungary.

Some memories that this article brought up: off-brand toys? You couldn't even buy LEGO until like 1982 for Hungarian forints. A few shops for diplomats sold it for hard currency which was impossible to get.

$800 cars? Comrade, you need to wait 5-10 years for a car and it's made out of paper and plastic. And it is literally incapable of going above 60 miles per hour. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant

Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away. - man, I got a root canal done without painkillers because they ran out of painkillers.

Being poor is Goodwill underwear. - our undershirts looked like gray rags because you couldn't get whitening detergent for years. It was a fluke that didn't get corrected until the next five year plan.

air conditioning. --- HAHAHAHAHA try living in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microdistrict one of these, oven in the summer, too hot in the winter because the central heating is cranked up the wazzoo and you can't do shit about it.

On the other hand, - Making your own food from raw ingredients: hamburgers, pizza, french fries, etc... - Being amazed by foods that you were never aware of: pho, sushi, stromboli, bagels, sausages on a grill - Approaching new places and people with naivety - All knowledge gained and learned is well learnt and mostly self learnt

Being poor is being happy to get a single snickers candy bar for Christmas (well it was New Years for me).

Being poor is skipping school prom and class foto because you don't have money to pay for nice clothes.

Being poor is having to listen to asshole relative who gave you their old clothes or furniture how you "owe them" every family gathering.

Being poor is not going to any family gatherings to avoid asshole rich relatives who flaunt their wealth in your face.

Being poor is always being under constant stress and worry. A worry those who are not poor will never understand.

Being rich is being able to visit your family.

Being rich is having insurance.

Being rich is paying for a monthly phone subscription.

Being rich is hot lunches.

Being rich is risking losing your job in order to negotiate a better contract with your boss.

Being rich is considering having children at all.

Being rich is buying alcohol.

Being rich is looking at house prices.

Being rich is saving money for the future.

Being rich is paying for a haircut.

Being rich is renting a house with a kitchen.

Being rich is making plans more than a few weeks ahead.

Being rich is worrying about North Korea instead of looking forward to blissful oblivion.

The strongest emotion I have felt to this day is the feeling that I would never get out of being poor.

To this day my nightmares are about losing my job, blowing through my emergency fund and not being able to find another job.

To this day, I don't buy beef at the grocery store. I can't bring myself to do it outside a special occasion. (Not saying I spend my money entirely wisely but that has stuck with me for some reason.)

I had taught myself on computers we had been donated first QBasic and later PHP. I am certainly lucky, but part of me is resentful at my mother in particular for how easy it seems to be to not live in poverty. I am so confused about the topic and honestly find myself angry at myself for my own thoughts. It's really hard to explain. I don't mean to or want to judge anyone but it's difficult. It's a touchy anxiety ridden topic for me.

Meanwhile, the whole world is trying to take advantage of you in innumerable ways. Trying to force you to work off the clock for free (wage theft). Trying to charge you ridiculous interest rates on short term loans. And then you have to pay extra for things because you're poor. Some things you only buy when you're forced to in an emergency, so you can't buy them on sale or shop around. Other things you can't buy in bulk because you can't afford to. You can't buy stuff that lasts. Etc.

"Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor." hit me hard. I didn't grow up poor, but I can understand this sentiment. It's unfortunate that so many people don't take the time to think about societal conditions before placing "blame" on the disadvantaged.

flash forward to now - i'm still a full-time bike messenger. i barely pay the rent for my tiny SRO i share with my girlfriend. my biggest goal in life is to get a job as a programmer to support my mom and siblings. i've been teaching myself computer science for years now, and i know i would succeed if i could get a job programming. i just don't know how i get there from here. being a bike messenger (a real one, not a postmate / uber eats person) is extremely physically demanding. i'm mentally and physically exhausted after work. i don't have enough time or energy outside of work to complete any of the projects i start, with the hope of having something to show to a company. i feel like a simple CRUD app is too easy of a project to show my skill to an employer, so i try to work on things like a compiler and a real-time rendering engine, but these are huge projects, and i don't have enough free time to finish them in any reasonable time frame. i'm confident in my programming skill, but my resume is a list of working-class jobs in machine shops and courier companies. any advice would be seriously appreciated.

(hopefully this doesn't read as too melodramatic or anything, it wasn't meant to be. i know i'm still a lot luckier than most.)

I've been with people so poor that when their friends had some beers they'd drink so much they'd pass out in a public park and be robbed of everything--by their friends--even their flip flops--and they'd wake up at noon the next day and wander barefoot home--whereever that is--with nothing.

I've seen people so poor they'd steal a bucket with a hole in it, they'd steal a dog trap to make a chicken coop. Forget about cars or bicycles...they'd steal a T-shirt or a lighter.

And they are not less moral or more moral, that's their life--screwed over in an endless cycle, locked into a futile struggle with the system that just does not let them make forward progress, always huffing it by foot or by bus because no car, and the bike has a flat.

From the bottom they look up; there are no rungs of the ladder to climb up, there are only superhuman leaps.

Being poor is wiping off the mold from your shoes before putting them on.

Being poor is buying second hand - unironically.

Being poor is working harder than your peers.

Being poor is not being able to fully relax, ever.

Being poor is a chip on your shoulder, that never goes away.

Being poor is a voice, deep within, saying nothing lasts, it is all an illusion, tomorrow you're back in the cellar.

Being poor never goes away. Being poor is being angry.

We could all be much, much happier if the forces that run this country stopped making people ashamed to be poor.

I sleep in a tent. I have turned down such offers.

I am literally homeless, yet can't identify with a lot that is in this article. This likely explains 90% of my social friction.

Being lower middle class is 4.5h of daily commute to public college (despite having best grades in your high-school) while being told all the time that you're a priviliged.

Being lower middle class is your friend suggesting to use his adress on your CV.

Being lower middle class is hiding your hometown from your coworkers and having them smirking and condescending when one day you can't evite anymore and show it on Gmaps/street view and regretting that you didn't show a random location.

Being lower middle class is being ashame of bringing friends home.

Being lower middle class is having friends scaried of coming to your place.

Being lower middle class is saving all pennies you can because you are terrified of getting poor.

Not enough room for all the people in the house. Driving an $800 car - although it works very reliably - maybe it is $1200 US. Living next to the freeway - well a 5 lane highway and a many many lane motorway around the corner.

It is incredibly hard to break the cycle when living from paycheck to paycheck unfortunately.

Being poor means being powerless in almost any and every situation, transaction, and interaction.

One thing that I believe is on that list that may escape a lot of folks: "Being poor is knowing EXACTLY how much everything costs."

Edit: Wups, didn't remember that that was how it starts

I want to help people who feel this way but do not want to make them feel like they owe anything in return, or that they are different because they need help. I don't know how to do this. I give money to charities but sometimes that feels very classist, some times I feel like I do it to make me feel better, rather than actually help people. I give food to foodbanks but I don't give enough. I want to volunteer somewhere but I tell myself I don't have time, but I probably do.

I guess the best thing I can do is raise my kids to not judge people on how much money they have, and to talk to people they think need help.

Being poor is this year's shoes are last year's gym shoes. (Good thing they stretched out.)

Being poor is choosing between the doctor and the heat.

Being poor is falling in a debt-trap no matter how financially disciplined you are.

Being poor is calculating your income & expenditures everyday and dreaming you would break even in the next month for sure.

Being poor is trying to avoid the worst days your loved ones have seen.

Being poor is going to work even if you feel sick.

Being poor is not knowing why you are so poor.

From a perspective of someone born in a much poorer country this sounds like a birth-right priveledge taken for granted.

My father died when I was 17 years old and my brother was 18 years old. My mother became an alcoholic and for the next 5 or 6 years I saw her sober less than 10 times. There were days in a row when we didn't had what to eat. She prioritized alcohol, cigarettes and coffee over food.

We were so poor that my brother got ill of tuberculosis from the lack of food. I was luckier because I used to eat at my ex girlfriend (present wife). The clothes I got were usually gifts received from my girlfriend. I was wearing the same pants months in a row, daily, until they got holes in them.

But I don't remember being stressed about what others thought about me and that made my whole adolescence beautiful. I wasn't even aware that somebody would notice that I wore the same clothes every day. Until one day a girl in my high school told me "these are some nice pants that you have, too bad that you're wearing only those". It hurt me, but I got over it fast thinking "how does this concerns you anyway?" and kept wearing them, because I didn't had others. And my main teacher once told me "you look good wearing other colors than black". While the black shirts were the only ones I got, until I received that light colored one. And I took that as a compliment - she just told me that I was looking good after all.

The positive part of being extremely poor for about 7 years is that I got really fed up with poorness and I do my best to never going back.

Fast forward 15 years after finishing high school, I am a software developer with 11 years experience, working remotely for a US company and I think my earnings put me somewhere in the top 1% earners in Romania. Since I started to work for this company, I didn't took a single vacation (with a few exceptions of 1-2 days off), because I feel it's the opportunity of my life time and I want to make as much as possible out of it. While I got 9-to-5 jobs I always tried to learn new things and had side projects and I was somehow baffled why the majority of my programmer colleagues weren't interested in something similar.

So, there are positive things in anything if we really try to find them. And a positive attitude makes the difference between feeling miserable and feeling ... normal, or even being happy. I think that my years of poorness increased my motivation and desire to succeed in life drastically, but it's definitely not an experience I would encourage someone to try.

There is poverty as finding hardship in life and there is fighting for survival in a literal sense. Poverty in the US is hardship of life. The US still has accessible infrastructure and job market to help an average person get on his feet.

Also, I find poverty to be related to your parents. If your parents are poor and then just go out of their way to have 6 children, well, their output is going to be divided by 6 and so you'll be shit poor.

Poverty is a byproduct of culture and nature. Stupid religious cultures (as well as nature) will push poor people to multiply to guarantee survival. Since the probability of survival of their offspring is weak, it might help to have lots of them.

This makes matter worse (lots of poor people themselves multiplying). Rich people having little offspring seem to help and accentuate the problem (make the few rich people fewer and the lot of poor more).

5 Things Nobody Tells You About Being Poor, May 27, 2011: (http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-nobody-tells-you-about-...)

The 5 Stupidest Habits You Develop Growing Up Poor, January 19, 2012: (http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-stupidest-habits-you-devel...)

4 Things Politicians Will Never Understand About Poor People, February 21, 2013: (http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-things-politicians-will-never-...)

Don't know why that's my trigger.

Holbrook’s is 420. The stranger holds up her card: 158. She places it in Holbrook’s hand and takes the higher number in exchange, explaining that she wants Holbrook and her baby to get in before she does. Holbrook doesn’t know what to say. The old lady mixes back into the crowd.

Being poor is not being able to afford your own domain name

Am I doing this right?

https://gist.github.com/ablakey/1cf9c03edf4b38c1646f17f8e0b5...

That's being smart, not being poor.

That's not real poverty. If any well-off person cares about you even a little bit then you are not poor because you have an emergency lifeline.

A real poor person won't hesitate to beg for money, especially from a family member (easier than begging on the streets).

> They fired the guy so everyone would feel better. And then of course they're making it worse by kicking the guy when he's down.

Yep, had that done to me. I HATE EVERY ONE OF YOU !