Anyone here grow up poor?

[absolute hardgainer]

RyanH, I strongly feel that I have to disagree with you here as I think some of what you are saying is quite ignorant:

"Money brings just as many problems as being poor does"

What kind of rich kid, upper-class bullshit is that? I can't believe you would actually say that crap. Sorry for having a go at you RyanH, but you OBVIOUSLY have not been poor.

Now, when I had to leave home I was homeless for like 2 weeks. I had no money, no job, was still finishing school and was pretty much buggered in a material sense.

Now, after years of plodding along I have certainly not moved up to the higher echelons of society, but I am far better off than I used to be, and also better off than anyone in my family. So, I've been poor and while I would not consider myself rich now, I know for sure that a financially secure situtation is always preferable to poverty.

These problems that you are talking about that money is supposed to bring, exist for just about everybody. INCLUDING THOSE WITH NO MONEY. Poverty in general amplifies whatever other problems people have.

hardgainer (if you've been poor and rich, you'd know which is better)

 

[Darkbrotha]

I grew up in South East DC.....one of the worst ghettos in the country....the bitch is that it is in the shadow of the capital. How's that shit grab ya????????

My father was killed when I was 6. Poor is all we know in the hood!

I pray and thank god every day that my Mama was hard on me and my brotha.......she taught us well! Respect people for who they are, and be proud of your self!

I could remeber starting the 5th grade in my Jocks (kmart) shoes. I got ripped on but I knew my mama worked hard for the $ for those shoes....so I was proud and I kept my head high!

 

[TheSalami]

dc may be a scary place in some areas but whats better than watching a movie in union station and being the only white people in there? i love it.

 

[Darkbrotha]

Hey salami.....I like it....u reprasenten! I always say us niggas don't bite....but we be loud as hell in the flicks!

I love that theater.....after the movie go to johnie rockets grab a shake and look at all the crazies at the station!

 

[theoak01]

im not poor i dont think but im far from wealthy,my parents have bad credit which means we cant get the car we desperatly need,my mom doesnt know if she will have some of her contracts come september thanx to the canada trust/toronto dominion bank mergers,she cleans them and the ones she cleans are closing and she may not get the contracts back again,then its back to living on 30 thousand a year ,she will be making 18 and my dads pention is only 12000 a year,so it may be getting hard ,i value everything i get,and i buy most of my own things to help my parents

 

[musclebrains]

There's a lot of comparing apples to oranges here. Only a fool would wish the experience of hard-core poverty and some of the descriptions here are painful to read. People who managed to rise above that level of cruel poverty should justly feel proud of themselves.

But it's also foolish to think that wealth doesn't produce unique problems. One thing this thread demonstrates is that you're not allowed to talk about the negative effects of growing up around money in this country. There's so much conviction that money can solve everyone's problems, that anyone who wants to talk about the particular negative effects of money is silenced, in the way Ryan has been dismissed here by several of you.

The actual truth is that unearned wealth often curses people with a sense of entitlement, robs them of ambition, frequently becomes a substitute currency of emotional expression, makes them despised in a world that on the one hand values money above all but hates anyone who doesn't work for it. When you're young and still in your family's money, you don't know who your friends are. All of this gets generalized as profound insecurity -- and, of course, to even say so invites ridicule.

The ridicule is so common that there are organizations in this country where the "closeted" adult children of wealthy people go to wring their hands and cry on one another's shoulders and do philanthropic work. It is pretty obscene to witness, but it's what happens when your experience is completely invalidated by people who think you have no reason to complain.

Ryan's wish to be comfortable but not wealthy makes perfect sense to me. It seems quite responsible.