why poor people stay poor - saving money costs money

[Liberal_in_LA]

Why Poor People Stay Poor
Saving money costs money. Period.



Excerpted from Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America by Linda Tirado. Out now from Putnam.

I once lost a whole truck over a few hundred bucks. It had been towed, and when I called the company they told me they’d need a few hundred dollars for the fee. I didn’t have a few hundred dollars. So I told them when I got paid next and that I’d call back then.

It was a huge pain in the ass for those days. It was the rainy season, and I wound up walking to work, adding another six miles or so a day to my imaginary pedometer. It was my own fault that I’d been towed, really, and I spent more than a couple hours ruing myself. I finally made it to payday, and when I went to get the truck, they told me that I now owed over a thousand dollars, nearly triple my paycheck. They charged a couple hundred dollars a day in storage fees. I explained that I didn’t have that kind of money, couldn’t even get it. They told me that I had some few months to get it together, including the storage for however long it took me to get it back, or that they’d simply sell it. They would, of course, give me any money above and beyond their fees if they recovered that muc

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2014/12/linda_tirado_on_the_realities_of_living_in_bootstrap_america_daily_annoyances.html

I was working two jobs at the time. Both were part time. Neither paid a hundred bucks a day, much less two.

I wound up losing my jobs. So did my husband. We couldn’t get from point A to point B quickly enough, and we showed up to work, late, either soaked to the skin or sweating like pigs one too many times. And with no work, we wound up losing our apartment.

It’s amazing what things that are absolute crises for me are simple annoyances for people with money. Anything can make you lose your apartment, because any unexpected problem that pops up, like they do, can set off that Rube Goldberg device.

[reddread]

1. tow companies and prison guard unions two BIG lobbys in CA

and you cant throw a rock without hitting some muckity cop with tow company connections and a dirty operation.
dont blame the victim for getting towed and then getting screwed.
its just business.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. tow companies are pure evil

[seveneyes]

2. The Theory of Everything

The Father, a brilliant scientist, has devoted his life to finding the Theory of Everything, the equation that will fully explain and unite all physical forces of the universe. He's obsessively working day and night; unaware that his wife and introverted son need far more attention that he has been giving them. The Mother has always supported her husband's scientific pursuits, but the strain of dealing with their asocial child's special needs has worn her down to the point of desperation."