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restingroboton If You’ve Never Lived in Poverty, Don’t Tell Poor People What They Should Do

I understand issues come up, that doesn't mean that you must overdraft or take a crappy loan. There are so many options for every scenario. Also coming from poverty, one of the hardest life lessons I had to learn was how to be self reliant. I started by changing my thinking. Overdraws and loans are one option and not the only option is most cases.

>but unfortunately many people need more than they're given.

I have a problem with this statement. I don't think many people in poverty are "given" anything. They need more than they "earn". To say given trivializes the blood, sweat and tears that many people shed just to survive.

restingroboton If You’ve Never Lived in Poverty, Don’t Tell Poor People What They Should Do

I don't understand your point here? Yes banks try to benefit themselves as far as checking goes. But as long as you only spend what you have in your account, (as in available funds), then you will never have a scenario like this. I have never had uncertainty in the availability of funds, (could be just that my bank says "available funds" as well as "current balance"), and it is almost always better to be late on your bill payment than to overdraft or write a bad check.

To you second point, I wasn't referring to childcare in general, just in these specific instances, (e.g. earlier start time for commute and periodic grocery shopping).

restingroboton If You’ve Never Lived in Poverty, Don’t Tell Poor People What They Should Do

Can you provide factual basis for this statement?

restingroboton If You’ve Never Lived in Poverty, Don’t Tell Poor People What They Should Do

Its incredibly naive to say that IQ and poverty are causally related. Yes there is correlation between higher IQ's and higher incomes, but you are making a sweeping generalization here implying causality.

restingroboton If You’ve Never Lived in Poverty, Don’t Tell Poor People What They Should Do

Consider this example:

It is raining outside. I go outside without a coat and get wet. I tell you its ok to go outside without a coat, so you come outside without wearing a coat. Is it my fault that you are wet, or your own?

I would say that you made the decision, even if it was influenced by me. Do you not agree?

restingroboton If You’ve Never Lived in Poverty, Don’t Tell Poor People What They Should Do

You have moved to an ad hominem approach regarding my past, normally I wouldn't even respond to this, but in this instance you are completely wrong.

I actually grew up very poor. As in my next meal was a privilege and not a guaranteed thing. I think its easy to dismiss my points by assuming that I have no experience with poverty, (or the pain of not having eaten a substantive meal for several days).

Again you reference

>checkered history of overdrafts or bounced checks.

Believe it our not, these are choices. You have a choice whether or not to write a check for more than you have in your bank account. You have a choice whether to with draw more than your current balance.

Furthermore, your point is moot as there are many options for those with spotty histories. A quick google search turned up this: https://twocents.lifehacker.com/how-can-i-open-a-bank-accoun...

restingroboton If You’ve Never Lived in Poverty, Don’t Tell Poor People What They Should Do

Its easy to reconcile both of these statements. Those that grew up in poor households often witnessed their parents make poor economic decisions. If you make the same decisions as your parents, (possibly because they just don't know any better), then your poverty is still a result of your decision.

We need to focus on education and adjustment, and not on any outside influence. Frankly, I do believe that life can really make things hard, but by focusing on things within our control we can make progress rather than repeating the cycle.

restingroboton If You’ve Never Lived in Poverty, Don’t Tell Poor People What They Should Do

There are many assumptions made by this article in an attempt to build a straw man.

First, there are many places where the author references children. Yes people in poverty have children, but the points she makes, also assume that the individual is a single parent.

>Cost of an extra hour of childcare to account for the commute time (at $13/hour, as well): $260 per month

>Which equals $800 – and doesn’t take into account the fact that grocery shopping by bus is not ideal for someone with kids in tow.

If you have a partner, both of these scenarios are likely a complete non-issue.

Second, the author uses incredibly avoidable financial decisions as justification as to why poverty is expensive.

>Overdraft fees, late fees on missed bills, high-interest credit card fees, and payday lenders are just a few ways that poverty begets higher expenses. The average payday loan borrower – who is usually short just a few hundred dollars between paychecks – ends up paying more than 300% interest on their initial amount.

Why are these necessary components of poverty? This is making wild assumptions that a payday loan is the only option when short.

>Banks also find ways to capitalize on people without money. Many checking accounts require that a person carry a minimum balance – and fine customers for every month that they don’t meet the requirement.

Checking accounts are free for anyone that can provide a consistent direct deposit, regardless of balance. If the job does not offer a direct deposit, its worth noting that many Credit Unions also offer free checking just for having an account.

>Each year, immigrants pay billions into our tax coffers, only to get the short end of the economic stick.

I would pay to see factual evidence backing this statement up.

I could go on, but this is only halfway through the article...

restingroboton Show HN: A neural net that critiques your logo

I uploaded a stock image and got a 88% overall. I really can't make any decisions based on this.