Why do poor people always have money for...?

Question

beer, cigarettes, and lottery tickets?

I work in an area that is very low income. I get gas at a station there every other day. I can not think of one time when someone wasn't in there buying one of these things, yet they drive a piece of crap car, and clearly have no money to speak of.

Answer 1

They blow thier welfare check on that. I have those kind in my town too. They can pay for all that but when it comes to paying thier medicaid co-pay (like $3 measly bucks) they sign a paper to waive it. Its totally utter bullshit and it pisses me off. How do you feel knowing that your tax dollars are paying for them to smoke, drink and gamble?

Answer 2

People who are poor are often uneducated. They live day-to-day and sometimes minute-to-minute. Whatever impulse hits them, they respond to it immediately, without considering the long-term implications. Smoking, they don't think about what their health will be like in 20 years. Drinking is the same thing -- the hangover and possible behavior change doesn't come into the picture. Plenty of people buy lottery tickets, but those with some education already have something put away in savings, investments, etc. For the poor and uneducated, buying a lottery ticket doesn't require more than a dollar or two, and you don't have to understand finance. It's not an investment where you can really "lose," like the stock market, because you're already starting with nothing and there's noplace to go but up. Many poor people endure a "hard knock" early in life. They left home in their late teens, or even earlier, and had to find a way to survive. This often means taking a low-paying job with long hours, which means quitting school and being so tired at the end of the day that you can't think or plan for the future. Getting ahead in life often requires a series of steps, and for the very poor, these small steps look like mountains. So they stay where they are and the cycle continues.

This of course does not apply to everyone who's poor, so I hope what I've written here does not offend anyone. It's just a general behavior pattern that I have personally observed.

Answer 3

It's pretty clear David you don't yet understand the world or the humans that live on it.
The beer and cigarettes(especially) are probably addictions for these people. The lottery for most is HOPE,
that they can win and get out of the situations they are in.
Why is there a very LOW Income area in one of the richest nations on earth?
Why is this RICH nation #3 on the list of all the industrialized powerful nations on earth with the most people living below the world poverty level?
Maybe some of these people were Emotionally,Physically or Sexually abused growing up.
Maybe they didn't have anyone to wipe their a--, make them breakfast,buy them clothes and send them off to school for a nifty little education so they also could afford a nice gas guzzler.
Maybe some of these "poor" people are really mentally ill and all they know is what they do each day(addictions included).
There are 46,000,000 Americans uninsured today,why is that? these "poor" people might not have insurance to see doctors that might help them,and beer,cigarette or ticket money just doesn't cut it.
Maybe one of those "poor" people like the one I hugged today,lost a child when he was just 15 from a heart condition,P.J. would have been 19 years old today.
Obviously you have not yet heard the cries of the Disabled,Elderly,Hungry,Poor and Afflicted.
Oh yes I drive an OLD CRAP van,that has taken many Disabled,Ederly people to hospitals,get medications or food,I call her OLD BLUE.
I have been on both sides,the haves and the have nots,
I thought I was very happy on the have side until a stroke brought me here.
So instead of wearing those people on the soles of your shoes why not ask one of those "poor" how they are doing and listen for those quiet cries.
P.S. Mobile just announced today a 2 BILLION $ profit for the 2nd quarter this year.
Gas every other day?

Answer 4

Poor people that have "any" money spend it on what they want most. Rich people also spend it on "what they want most". The difference in the meaning of "poor" and the meaning of "rich" is the only difference.... they both buy what they WANT. I buy what I want, you buy what you want, and it's a never ending cycle of asking "why do poor people always have money for.....?" It's in a lot of discussion panels.... The question is WRONG.... that answer is easy.... poor (with any money) and rich (with all the money in the world) are the same in the fact that they "BUY WHAT THEY WANT". Poorer have smaller wants (no matter how unnecessary we know they are) and richer have larger wants (there again....no matter how unnecessary we know they are). And, we all spend money foolishly more times than we'd like to admit to ourselves (let along to anyone else)... We just find ourselves more condemning if we see a poor person doing it. And, that's called "human nature"...welcome aboard! Plus, I know you've heard..."live today as if it were the last day of your life".... a lot of folks really do that....don't they?

Answer 5

There are different types of poverty:-

* The real poverty you see in places like Africa where people have literally NOTHING and no means to even begin to change that, where the ownership of a single goat makes a man rich; and

* There are people in the "western" world who are also genuinely poor although I suspect that even the scruffiest tramp would be considered rich by many in Africa and elsewhere

* The self-imposed poor - the group I guess you're talking about. These are the people who have an income from welfare or perhaps some low-paid job but never have any money because they spend it on drink, cigarettes, gambling and so on. Often they borrow money at high interest rates because the lenders who loan at lower rates won't touch them. They buy food which is pre-prepared but more expensive. They have no concept of saving and are always in debt or bordering on indebtedness.

Much of the reason for all this is simple lack of education. I recall a TV programme a few years back where a group of such people were taught how to cook from fresh ingredients and they found that they actually saved on their grocery bills... but I suspect that any money they had left over just went on gambling, drink or some other wasteful item or activity.

I also recall an interview with a guy who smoked after they had just announced an increase in tobacco tax. Instead of cutting back on smoking he announced in complete sincerity that his children would be getting less presents at Christmas as a result. It is this sort of "poverty of thought" that makes many of the inhabitants of our inner cities poor, not lack of income.

I was brought up in a relatively poor area of north east London, UK. Many of the kids I went to school with came from families with a bigger income than mine but they were in hand-me-down clothes and were often scruffy and unwashed. In contrast, my mother knew how to manage the small income she had, never smoked, gambled or drank. We were the last family in our street to get a TV set and the last to change our TV to a colour set. We didn't have a car and often didn't go away on holidays. But we grew our own fruit and vegetables on a small piece of rented land and were better fed, clothed and looked after.

The sort of poverty you describe is as much a state of mind as a state of bank balance.

Answer 6

Beer is to sooth the pain of being broke, cigarettes is, frankly, where there money goes, and lotto tickets for the off chance that they my change there life by winning big. I personally don't buy any of these things, but my husband's dad used to own a liqure store, so I know exactly what your talking about.

Answer 7

even during the great depression people always had money for beer & ciggarettes. Its a staple of life for some people, and what's it matter to you anyway. you're not the one paying for it, just because someone has less money then you does that mean they have to go without?! No, it doesn't it's their life it's their money mind your own business. Not to mention being poor is different in everyone's eyes, if you ask people how much money is in their bank account before they're broke youll get a different answer from almost everyone.

Answer 8

Poor people as you call them have lived a life of which there is only the vision of one day at a time. So the daily fulfilment of there addictions
Ahhhhhhh. Yes they are the basic addictions of there life
Lotto amybe not be poor no more
Beer forget my day here comes tommarrow
Darn Tried when i was young to be a part. Now they are apart of my daily life.

Answer 9

It's at the top of their priority list. 1. beer 2. cigarettes, 3. lotto tickets 4. feed family.........and then start where most people do.

Answer 10

well maybe you dont know thier circumstances.....maybe they choose not to buy a new car because they are paying off thier house mortgage or paying for thier childs college education...you never know...they might not be as poor as you think....see alot of people stereo type crappy cars etc buying beer ect as a person being poor ...you just maybe surprised at juist how rich they truely are....Besides I dont liek ppl to know that i have money so i purposely drive a older non fancy car ..stereo typing can get us in trouble sometimes...hope this answers your question...ps ..having wisdom and knowledge is worth way more than money ...

Answer 11

Lottery tickets are a form of hope. Maybe the odds of winning should be printed in a larger type.