PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

G-Benz · #14 10-31-2007, 12:44 PM

I agree that the stats have little to do with quality of life.

However the poor are plagued with the same issues that the rest of us face each day...the bombardment of the marketing culture that says that "you must have these things in order to be happy/beautiful/successful/popular/admired..."

The real issue is lack of money management. That is why the poor will ALWAYS remain poor. Many now wealthy individuals arrived in this country with a few dollars and the coat on their back and built wealth rather than acquire depreciating assets.

It's disenchanting to find that my wife budgets wisely and resists frequent visits to the salon to save on expenses, yet some young lady in line in front of us is sporting a $400 Coach purse, a $250 hairdo, and is paying for her groceries with food stamps with two grimy kids in tow...it's all about priorities.

Note, for those used to seeing African-Americans residing in a squalid residence, replete with an '08 Escalade sporting $5000 dubs parked on the driveway, there is an unfortunate bit of history behind that.

During the segregation era, many banks refused issuing home loans to African-Americans, some due to racism, others due to just plain high risk. Those that could get a home loan found themselves locked out of mostly-white neighborhoods that had better housing.

Dealerships (as they do today) had no issue financing anyone and everyone. So the typical African-American could make up for the inability to purchase a decent home by obtaining an alternative status symbol...the Cadillac. The rest of society could see right through that, but for the immediate social circles, this was acceptable.

Even as things changed, the mindset hasn't. This has trickled down to a couple of generations, to today. The uninformed (read, poor), will continue on the same old road.