This may sound weird

[w0nderer]

but an early 'get' in working poor would be a smartphone (doesn't have to be the coolest one)


i'm not talking the newest iphone here

something that can read ebooks/epub/pdf and edit office docx (polaris office/aao)
and surf the net and answer email

why?


net==seek work and another employment
office == put that 'work skills out there'
ebooks == improve the workskills and spend time

[Melurkyoulongtime]

1. I found this to be true for me as well

but the initial outlay of cash really hit the the wallet hard. I was able to get started phone and 1 month's prepaid service for about $140 with unlimited text and data/500 minutes phone. It's been invaluable to me since I don't presently own a computer.

[Half-Century Man]

2. Cricket

5 meg data, unlimited talk and text for $50.00 mon.

[w0nderer]

9. 5 meg or 5 gig?

5 meg sounds really little for a $50 plan

[w0nderer]

3. :-)) so glad i'm not only one

i hit the streets and got a smartphone plus 2.5 gig data and all flat talk and text for $40 a month plus $20 for the phone


now...yeah my phone is worth more, i worked for it
but my data plan is now $50 5 gig before choke and free text, talk, and incoming international and text international

means i can go anywhere (dunkin, library and so on) and grab ebooks or data and or news
and let's get real....we need news data and info

[PatrickforO]

4. It's a nice thought, but instead I'm thinking that

many of the working poor have very little time for anything because they have to work two jobs just to live. It is a vicious cycle, because one little setback - a sick child or a broken down car - can literally bring about a lost job and homelessness. This is a hopeless, extremely stressful way to live, with no extra money for anything ever.

Add to this some structural problems such as the lack of affordable child care, no health care, no dental care, no ability to save, no time for exercise or other recreation, no time or money for postsecondary training, a steady diet of cheap but non-nutritious food, and you have lives that may not be able to be improved with a smart device.

Right now, my state's economy is booming, but the sad reality is that 48% of the people are in poverty or just above.

To my mind, the biggest problem is the working poor don't make enough money, which is why I believe the minimum wage should be raised to $15/hr. Since the lack of a single payer healthcare system that is not tied to employment hurts working poor more than any other group, we need single payer healthcare. We are also downright brutal to our single moms, who have great potential; unfortunately their potential is being wasted because of our refusal to heavily subsidize child care.

In the meantime we have CEO salaries at stratospheric levels - $15 or $20 million a year when their workers have no economic security, earn low wages, have no benefits or pensions. This is because corporate charters call for officers to focus solely on increasing shareholder value at the expense of the workers, the customers and the environment. And, don't forget the increasing number of Fortune level companies (GE, Mattel, Paccar, Wells Fargo and many others) who are not paying ANY US income tax - they have managed to salt away over $2 trillion in UNTAXED profits offshore. How is that good for the American people?

The way I figure it, w0nderer, I pay a lot of taxes, but I'd be willing to pay more if we could use that money to make our lives better rather than feed the military industrial complex and wage forever war.

Ah, how much will all this cost, you ask? Well, the problem is that the Fed isn't really a quasi-governmental body. It is a body made up of bankers who create money simply by lending it out at interest. We are slaves to these bankers as long as we don't nationalize our central bank like Abraham Lincoln did and print our own money. Do this, and we can be debt free and have infrastructure improvements, healthcare, child care and even free tuition at state colleges.

This is why I'm supporting Bernie, because he wants the same things I want and has fought for these things for 40 years. Oh, he's not talking about nationalizing the central banking system like I wish he would, but the other things, yes. You can find his stances on the real kitchen table issues that face Americans at https://berniesanders.com/ and make your own decision as to whether you support him or not.

Good luck to you!

[malokvale77]

8. Wish I could rec this post.

Thank you PatrickforO.

[w0nderer]

11. i fully support 15/h and bernie and more i support working living wage (which is more than 15/h)

That being said
i am working poor (2 jobs 60+ h/week)
i spend some time on busses from work 1 to work 2 and work 2 and home (what i don't bicycle)...that's downtime unless i read a book or play a game
i spend time on what lunch i get, and funnily i can chew and read at the same time
i can even walk to work and read a book as long as i'm careful at crosswalks

If you pay a 'lot of tax' are you in fact 'working poor' or are you stating that compared to 'what you make' you pay a lot of tax?

Just curious

actually working living wage was about 4 years ago or so defined at 17/hours
defined as
healthcare and afford to use it (just paying premiums is one thing...how about the rest?)
dental care
visual care
pension
roof
food
power
water/heat/garbage/disposal sanitation
transportation
clothing
entertainment (small amount)
at the 2010 to 2015 (approx 9% loss of value of dollar if not more during that time) the $17 should read $18.53
or mine should read $9.50 to 10.36 (and at that i make more than minim wage as you can see)

Good luck too, i support him, i'm not allowed to vote, but i do help groups where i can.

[PatrickforO]

14. No, not working poor. Was, but not now, thankfully.

But I've been there - working two jobs and praying every day that nothing happens that I won't be able to afford to fix. Like a car breakdown, a wreck, a big plumbing leak, etc.

Now that I am doing OK, I don't want to take that away from those who have less. I'd rather have policies in place that help EVERYONE have enough.

Because, you know, I think that's my definition of heaven: enough.

[w0nderer]

15. Sorry

sounded a little 'judgemental' using that 3rd person a lot for 'working poor' for a while


no bad

and yeah enough is enough for me

hi and welcome
and yes, i support bernie, and i support $18 per hour


my definition of heaven?
not having to deal with tired people in a retail environment that are horny or pissed off and take it out on me

[w0nderer]

16. forgot to say

i'd rather have policies in place too, but that's long term (bernie hopefully)
this group is...get past the next paycheck in some cases ya know, so dig back into memories for those tricks please

and i'm glad you got out

i was middle but 3 waterheater failures plus a landlord default on house...
yeah i'm wp now

[Melurkyoulongtime]

17. I'm currently working poor

Used to make almost $20/hr salaried non-exempt + really good benefits until laid off in 2012. I haven't been able to make more than $8/hr + no benefits in the past year due to being in semi-rural area w no car and also no computer. If I didn't have the phone I'd have no access to the web and therefore, no DU. That is unacceptable to me

[PatrickforO]

18. Yeah, I probably ought to say that in my post to which you replied

I did not mean to say that everyone shouldn't have a smart phone or device. Absolutely. All I meant with that post was the problems you have if you're working poor will only be partly ameliorated by having such a device. That's all. But yeah definitely, everyone needs a cell phone, for sure.

[Melurkyoulongtime]

19. No worries nt

[w0nderer]

20. sad to see you with us

but happy to see you with us too

you get it..smartphone == computer+tablet+internet for us
ya?

[Melurkyoulongtime]

21. Yep!

I've been all over the economic spectrum in my life - from being born middle class in the 70s to becoming almost dirt poor as a kid, then an early marriage, divorce, fought thru single parenthood, crappy fast food jobs, college, etc to work my way into a great job w benes only to get laid off 8 years later. It's funny though, because during some of the poorest times of my life (early 90s) I was rubbing shoulders with one of the richest men in Houston, TX, often on a daily basis, as I almost married into his family. Great man and family may he RIP. I saw some amazing stuff in my time with them. My big thing right now is to get a car again (no real public transportation out here). If I can manage a cheap car I can get a better job again but right now fast food/gas station attendant are really only employers I'm within walking/bicycling distance. Oh well, this isn't first time I've been poor, but i certainly hope it's the last!

[w0nderer]

23. touching on a big thing there (transport)

importance of car (affordable) to be able to get a better job vs bicycle/walking distance

i know that limits me quite a bit too

[MADem]

5. Tracfone has a bunch of cheapies.

I have one, no complaints. If you are near an open wifi signal, you can use that instead of your data minutes.

If you have access to WIFI, you can get an older model kindle FIRE that can do most surfing/email/reading stuff that is a good bet, too.

[djean111]

6. My grandson says that after having had a cell phone for a while, he realizes that all he really

needs is a tablet. Or a cell phone sans phone service. email, surfing, texting (through email).
He is working on a book when he is not working at his job, and a fairly cheap tablet with a keyboard and internet suits him just fine. And he works on the book in Google Drive, so he doesn't have to worry about losing any data when he inevitably drops that tablet one time too many.

Our home phone suits his needs.

[w0nderer]

12. he might want to hit a used comp store for a cheap desktop/laptop

and install a micro linux (for online/wordprocessing)

i don't have a home phone
i have
cellphone
...
.....
......
i said cellphone
...
.....
........
stop reading that's what i got!
it gives me internet/sms/fax/phone

chuckle
but everyone has different needs
for me keeping a cellphone turned out cheaper
and mine is a larger cellphone and i did find a keyboard in a thriftstore that hooks into it

[djean111]

22. I still have a landline because my "retiree" bundle of internet, phone, and TV

is a lot cheaper than I could get anything elsewhere. The company I worked for sold everything not mobile-phone-related to another company, though, and we are waiting to see if this retiree perk will still be honored, in January. Knocks $60 off the bundle, and the service is excellent.

When cell phones first became fairly ubiquitous, I got one, and at the time, I grew to hate it because I really didn't want everyone to have instant access to my time. And, mostly, I was just asked to bring stuff home. So - it has been a really long time since I have had one. A friend bought me one recently, and I know I can get cheap service, but I have been procrastinating. Funnily enough, I used to be a mini-computer system manager, I could plan, order, and put together an HP-3000 or a Tandem all by myself, with a screwdriver, and then hook up an entire work group, and keep it running, software and hardware.
But - if someone foolhardily hands me their cell phone - when I hand it back, I hear "what the fuck did you do to my phone???!!!!". And I usually leave a picture of the inside of my nose as a memento. True story, bro.

[w0nderer]

25. :-)

I did the math on internet phone and tv landbase
vs cellphone + dataplan + replacable sdcard (for when i hog wifi hotspot to download shows)

cellphone for me came out cheaper

I come out of Slackware/linux pc support/entry point admin myself (well early on from c64/amiga/ms dos 5/ms dos 6(add drdos in here too)/os2-3(and warp)/win3.51nt/windows 95/98/nt4/linux+freebsd/xp/mac os x (rolls eyes looks horrible now that i read that list and i didn't even mention messing with slow..uuh solaris irix minix and openbsd)

never did mini computers (larger stuff) though

did a few pc clusters though

you need a commandline phone is what you need :-P
or one where you hardware solder the programming *jk*

nose pictures are fun, just tell them you took a 'nasal selfie'

[NV Whino]

7. Look into refurbished phones

Sometimes they are free with a plan. "Plans," by the way seem to be going by the wayside. I once got a top of the line Blackberry for $8.

Tracfone is good, too. I pay $10 a month for 150 rollover minutes. I now have more than 3000 minutes stored up. It's the same AT&T service I was paying $40+ for previously.

Also look for senior discounts, and family discounts.

[astral]

10. .

I too recommend checking out BlackBerry phones instead of cheapo phones, because not only do they run smoothly and have full features (and there are a number of varieties to discuss so i wont go into it here), also due to some of their bad publicity which should not be blamed on the quality of their phones, they sell for much less than they are worth.

If you live in an area with free wifi locations you can run a phone pretty cheaply, and even use one for simply a wifi browsing device. BlackBerries all come with a micro media card slot so you can store your important information and have bunches of music besides.

[w0nderer]

13. :-)

i loved blackberries
are they still fully supported?


most android phones have micro sd and yes i support that and wifi as well..crucial for storage, music or books
heck even 'if stopped by police application' or 'if stopped by police know your rights card'

hi, welcome, enjoy it here btw

[LiberalArkie]

24. I buy an iPhone every few versions and manage to trade in the old one. But I have found that

the AT&T go phone to be a heck of a package. I have them draft it from my bank account and they credit me $5 a month making it $55 a month. For that I get unlimited nationwide calls, unlimited nationwide messages and unlimited messaging to Mexico Canada and others. And 4 gb of data that rolls over to the next month. On my LTE service I get about 45mb data rate. And you can tether it to a PC.

No contract. Buy more as you need it. I stumbled into it when I was trying to save some money, still am being on Social Security.

I will save up to make a big purchase like the phone so that I don't have to worry about it going out.

I saved up a couple of years ago and bout a heat-pump water heater. Cost me $1200 but during the summer it puts out cool air and hot water and uses so little electricity that I cut my light bill in half the month after I installed it.

[w0nderer]

26. for older ipod touch (1 2 gen) ipad (1g 2g) and iphone 2g 3g

whited00r

http://www.whited00r.com/index?lang=en
can breathe some life back into the device

as always, backup backup backup
read the instructions, multiple times, carefully

---
Whited00r 7 brings the look and feel of iOS7 to older devices no longer supported by Apple. Our firmware has been engineered to replicate iOS7 down to the smallest detail. Whited00r's first priority is speed. None of the modifications Whited00r makes to your device will slow it down.
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