this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
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I’m sorry, but what university degree do you need to be a bloody expert on this?! Like yeah no shit the crisis where the cost of everything has been skyrocketing, is affecting poor people the most.
@princessnorah @melbaboutown yes but also in very specific ways - like, the cost of rich people gadgets and toys isn't going up anywhere near as fast as food, rent, fuel. The inflation is weighed towards the essentials which make up a higher % of poor people's spending.
Aye. I seem to remember that being called the 'Vimes Boots' poverty index. Not just in the Pratchett-verse but for real
@melbaboutown ooh that's good.
Also relevant https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/
Yep. Some of this is America specific but https://www.cracked.com/blog/why-we-cant-stop-hating-poor
I watched all the news articles come out shocked at people society considered 'deserving' now accessing food banks and it was telling
@melbaboutown great piece.
That's the most succinctly I've seen a writer explain that cause and effect are all mixed up when you look at why some people are scraping along and don't know where their next meal is coming from.
Any easy/glib explanation or moral framework is bullshit in stilts.
I'm hoping to anger other people enough to push back against this, because I'm too exhausted and disabled to do much activism myself anymore
Unfortunately I’m in the same boat when it comes to being too exhausted and disabled as well.
Seriously. The marginal utility of money is one of the things people should learn from Econ 101.
And when most of that money gets spent, wealthy businesses get it anyway. Taking some of their money and giving it to poor people would make them even richer.