This blew my mind in teaching.
Most poor people don’t know they’re poor. Or the absolute dimensions of being poor. Like I know how much my work is worth, my salary, my intellectual properties, stocks, real estate, savings——I have a general number for each in mind. But Poor people don’t because they can access so many things of luxury/value. The internet and broader, deeper consumerism seems to have changed the mentality, the mental lines so that lower Social Classes consider themselves Middle Class.
Middle Class starts at about $36k a year for an individual or family of 4—-no I do not know how a family of four can survive on this.
I found that Poor people knew they weren’t Rich, they’re not dumb but they assumed they were Middle Class. A lot of my work with students, teenage to adult, was showing them the varying lines, demarcations of Financial Social Class so that they could have a better understanding of what they were trying to attain and what tools would assist.
Poverty s often generational so mommy and daddy didn't know, grandparents didn’t know but they got by. By not having explicit financial discussions with their children and being able to access more and more luxury items on credit or as knockoffs, Poor generations got a skewed framework for understanding where they were at and why. This perpetuates throughout the generations until they literally think they’re okay because they have certain sneakers, clothes, cars, etc.. There also aren’t shows reflecting poverty on TV anymore, there are more shows exampling Upper Middle Class and Rich (yeah, Modern Family, I’m talking about you) so if the viewer can identify having some of those things then again their view is skewed.
This skewed vision of economic class and true ability and lack of financial education and ability to understand math and read a mortgage is what I think played a huge helping hand to supplying mortgages to large banks. People always blame Wal-Mart for the eroding small stores and not the millions of people rushing INTO Wal-Mart instead of the small stores. I think credit swaps and mortgage hedged funds and debt swaps were like a crowded Wal-Mart store full of people who didn’t understand where and what they truly were in a financial sense because American credit allows people to obtain much more than they are worth or should.
Rich people generally know, to the dollar, if not penny where their assets are. The point being one having assets and two knowing the difference between one and a liability. Poor people assume because they purchase or pay for something it is an asset, which is the antithesis of one. Not understanding that is why Poor people don’t understand they’re Poor until they have a need for money and have to try and sell what they purchased and learn about the value and intrinsic value.
Smile, Kyle
KylePhoenixShow@gmail.com
KylePhoenixShow@gmail.com
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