Reply #87: I agree that credit is not the solution - BUT [View All]

I find this attitude unacceptable:

>>You say that folks are "forced" into credit because no other options are available. They are "forced" because they configure themselves into positions to rely upon the availability of credit.<<

I used to work in a school district in the inner city. My class turnover was about 60% every year. Parents in that district would camp with friends, relatives etc., and save up enough working at a fast food restaurant for minimum wage - often less than full time - earning maybe $400-$500/month. When they got first and last month's rent saved up for a lousy (sometimes literally) $100-$200/month squat house, they moved. If it took them across school district lines, they were gone. They stayed there usually about 4-5 months - just long enough for the next eviction to catch up with them when they didn't have enough money coming in to pay the rent. Then, back out on the street - or hopefully they can find someone else to camp with with whom they haven't worn out their welcome. Again - if it took them across district lines, they were gone. The kids survived on school lunches - generally including through the summer, as it was the only food they got. As they got older, some of the kids took jobs to supplement the family income so maybe they could stay in the same house all year.

Sorry - but these folks did not "configure themselves" into positions to rely on the availability of credit. Their income does not match their outgo; they are (many of them) incapable of or unable to find (or make it to) work that pays more. Their lack of stable housing exacerbates the problem because if they are booted out of their house their next house may not be within walking distance (and they may have no other means of transportation) to their job so they may need to quit and start all over again. Many of these parents lacked even a high school education. That's the sad reality - and these are the families that had enough where-with-all to move out of the deep inner city. Where I taught was actually a step up from the darkest recesses of poverty.



On the flip side, you have my daughter - the daughter of privilege. Were it not for the privilege that living as my daughter will provide her, she would likely be in the same shoes for very different reasons. Her health care costs, in a year when nothing goes wrong, are between $5000 and $10,000 - perhaps higher. I can't tell you precisely, since we have not yet finished a year since her health care costs took a big leap by the diagnosis of a second chronic illness.

Even with a high school education (and, we hope, a fancy college education), chances are she will need to rely on us for the first 10-20 years of her adult life to survive. It is unlikely that she will be able to work full time because of her health conditions - BUT it will (we hope) be years before her health deteriorates to the point where she qualifies for SSI or SSD (even though she now has two chronic illnesses, either one of which alone will eventually qualify her). She is struggling to finish 12 hours this semester (the semester has ended and she has three papers still to write).

If she were not a child of privilege, whose parents can afford to pay for her health care once she is bounced off the family plan, it would be very unlikely that that she could make enough money to pay $5000-$10,000 for routine health care, save enough for the years when something does go wrong, pay rent, put food on the table, etc. She would likely be living on the edge; a position made all that more challenging and precarious because of her health.

She has the intelligence, solid education, years of hearing us talk about saving and making choices - resenting some of the choices - but at least having been exposed to the concept enough that (asked from health costs) she should be able to do the bootstrapping you did. Making choices has always been part of her life because, unlike the students I taught, we had enough money to have the luxury of being able to make choices. Having the ability to, but choosing not to, buy a bed on credit rather than setting aside money to buy it later is a very different life dynamic than literally not knowing where your next meal is coming from - day in and day out for years, often times starting in infancy.

Even with that advantage - if we were suddenly to vanish - because of the barriers her health throws in the way it would be a very short time before she would be faced with economic circumstances that would move her beyond her ability to live beyond hand to mouth.

I am glad you were able to raise yourself up out of poverty - but your circumstances are not the circumstances everyone finds themselves in, and I'm having a hard time "listening" to your basic point that credit is not the solution because I find the blame you heap on folks who are, in many instances, in circumstances beyond their control very troubling. I probably won't end up living had to mouth - but I am well aware how precarious my position of privilege is - and how little credit I can actually take for being in that position.