Why Do Poor People 'Waste' Money On Luxury Goods?

[groovedaddy]

"We hates us some poor people. First, they insist on being poor when it is so easy to not be poor. They do things like buy expensive designer belts and $2500 luxury handbags."

To be fair, this isn't about Errol Louis. His is a belief held by many people, including lots of black people, poor people, formerly poor people, etc. It is, I suspect, an honest expression of incredulity. If you are poor, why do you spend money on useless status symbols like handbags and belts and clothes and shoes and televisions and cars?

One thing I've learned is that one person's illogical belief is another person's survival skill. And nothing is more logical than trying to survive.

My family is a classic black American migration family. We have rural Southern roots, moved north and almost all have returned. I grew up watching my great-grandmother, and later my grandmother and mother, use our minimal resources to help other people make ends meet. We were those good poors, the kind who live mostly within our means. We had a little luck when a male relative got extra military pay when they came home a paraplegic or used the VA to buy a Jim Walter house (pdf). If you were really blessed when a relative died with a paid up insurance policy you might be gifted a lump sum to buy the land that Jim Walters used as collateral to secure your home lease. That's how generational wealth happens where I'm from: lose a leg, a part of your spine, die right and maybe you can lease-to-own a modular home.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/why-do-poor-people-waste-money-on-luxury-goods

[catnhatnh]

1. K&R

Really great read on status and class.

[bemildred]

2. Puritanism: the desperate fear that somebody, somewhere, is happy. nt

[SheilaT]

3. Really interesting.

It should be a full book.

I know that I'm amazed when I see someone who I have reason to know has very little money (maybe they're in a program about the trials of being poor) and I see that they have designer fingernails. I know that maintaining a good manicure is expensive, almost on a par with the cost of smoking cigarettes, and so I can never quite figure out why they do it. On the other hand, it's possible I've been judged for not having designer fingernails and have never known that. In my case, because I'm white and because I'm reasonably well educated and well spoken, I've never experienced what someone of color experiences. While my lack of a college degree has held me back in the workforce, I am the only one who is at fault for that. No one can look at me and say, "Well clearly she doesn't have her bachelor's degree!".

And even though the article focused as much on race as on class, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that poor white people, especially those who have been poor for several generations, also don't have a clue how to navigate the system, how to present themselves so that they can get the kinds of jobs that lead to better jobs.

Again, I'd love to read the entire book on this.

[bemildred]

5. Maintaining personal appearance is essential when you live on the streets.

Just saying.

[SheilaT]

7. That certainly is true, but the article is not about living on the streets.

I volunteer at our local homeless shelter, and I can tell who is newly homeless, compared to long term by how much better groomed the newbies are. Which is not to imply that the long term homeless don't care, but they have very little on-going access to anything that helps good grooming.

The article is largely about race, although class certainly comes into it, and how dressing and grooming and even speaking the way the larger white society expects can be crucial to any kind of advancement, decent job, or even getting various social services. My comment was intended to show my own narrow perceptions of some things. I often notice nails, simply because a few years ago I got my nails done regularly, for maybe six months. I stopped doing it because of the ongoing cost, which I could afford, but decided I'd rather spend that money on other things. In reality, how any of us spends our money is no one else's business, unless it somehow affects them, or maybe if our kids are going hungry because we're spending food money on something else.

[bemildred]

8. Maintaining personal appearance is essential when you are poor.

Maintaining personal appearance is important for anybody. Society is not kind to people who look or act too different, you attract cops for one thing, and people will report you and ask you to leave and ...

The issue was why poor people spend money on personal appearance, I think it's a dumb question.

[Rozlee]

4. Stereotypes are painful.

I was raised the poor daughter of undocumented illegal parents. I was always a tiny, skinny Rosie Perez look-alike with an accent worse than hers, wild frizzy hair that couldn't be combed down to look stylish and a what-the-fuck-you-looking-at attitude. Despite this, I had some book smarts and went into the Army to get my degree as an RN and married a well-to-do, high-ranking military Anglo officer that was 20 years older than myself who lifted me into a much higher socio-economic status. I had enough money to shop at Nordstrom, but the saleswomen would always ask for my ID when I'd present my credit card although they wouldn't ask for anyone else's. They'd always quirk a suspicious eyebrow at my Ye Old English surname, but would grudgingly ring up my purchases. You can take the girl out of the barrio, but sometimes, society will remind you that you'll always be barrio to them.

[groovedaddy]

6. I worked in banking and financial services for 12 years or so. Perception reigns supreme.

The scammers often walk in the door dressed to the nines and walk out with what they came for. On the other hand, that scruffy looking guy with the shabby clothes, might be loaded to the gills.