The high cost of being poor

you got me wrong,i am not talking sailboats that you have in mind!I
bought mine with 4000 euros back in 1999 (equiv. of buying a small car in trhe UK at the time) and made it my home for 7 years.
Living on a few euros
.Of course you need some money to start with ,and of course i was not trying to take the conversation out of context.:):slight_smile:
I know how it is to be poor,i am one!(i am a greek,unemployed,homeless,and disabled,i do not receive anything from the greek state since i came “home”(well,not really home,i do not feel greece is my home any more than any other place o ve been or havent yet visited,but anyway ,for ease of understanding where i am coming from).
I lived in the UK for 6 years prior to my departure for the round of europe in a boat.
I was on benefits(Unemployment benefit and of course rent paid by the council
I after the 6 years i decided i was not going to stay in a golden cage(which was UK for me at the time since i was living without having to work for all these years).
I bought the boat ,started repairs for 6 motnths and at the same time trained myself in sailing (i didnt have any idea about sailing before that).
I took off 6 months later for Calais.Never looked back.
I d rather be free than under the weather…:slight_smile:

Now why am i saying these things?
I never paid a penny for the marina at Ramsgate(yes in a Royal marina ,me the poor greek).
The council was paying it…:slight_smile:
Since i didnt have a flat they were paying the marina fees instead.
As for capital after departure i must admit oi owe a big thanks to certain banks !!:):slight_smile:
Yes ,the cards and the cheque books worked fine thank you!!!:):)("0 thou quid i took with me,lasted me for the first 3 years of my trip!!:):slight_smile:
Never to be returned of course.
I am one of those who can say ,they beat the system!!:):slight_smile:

Several years later ,i find myself without a boat (too tiring to liveaboard) back in greece that i left 15 years ago.,
Poverty is rising here fast.
My own house is soon going to be sold for peanuts as all properties have lost value.
As for cash dont even ask.
taxes are so high you can not afford to breathe in greece today if you are not rich.

So back to the poor,and the quality,i claim that if we go for quality ,i dont mean buy expensive shit,i mean usueful stuff,you need to make it good so you can depend on that.

Especially if you are poor.
You want to make your roof so that it doesnt require repair every so often.
You want to make your growing plot so that you work less to produce more with less effort ,so you can invest yourt time (which is in reality our only wealth),to doing things for you and your soul.(help others )
I think it is possible not in the context of a big city and not maintaining certain aspects of life like working for some company or expecting to go out for drinks every night to the high roller places(which in my view are as bad a quality (of life)as you can get )…:):slight_smile:

Sorry if i jump all over the conversation i hope you all make sense of my way of expressing myself.:slight_smile:
Thank you for your patience all.:slight_smile:

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I like your world. It sounds like a top place to live.

The sad reality is that it’s not currently possible for the vast majority of working or unemployed poor to have it. When you’re in a situation like those above, where even an unexpected medical bill of a hundred dollars or so is enough to completely fuck up your life for several months, $4000 for a boat is about as affordable as $400 million for a superyacht.

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Missy_Pants:
I’ve even thought of making a plastic bag drying tree!

chgoliz:
Sigh. I have a plastic bag drying tree!

So do the very richest people I know. In fact I’ve been to parties at a house with five kitchens in it (three people live there, plus their staff) and I know they routinely re-use plastic bags.

Do you know what the motivation is? For example, maybe the owners grew up dirt poor or during the depression, so they’re extremely conscious about waste?

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Well, I think being poor in the Eurozone vs. the US are two different things, different contexts (even in places like Greece, where austerity is being imposed from outside the country) - there is still a safety net that just doesn’t exist in the US. In the specific context of the US, being poor means that you really are sometimes less than a paycheck away from literally being homeless. And sometimes quality (and by that I mean even getting useful things) simply is not an option. The game really changes once you’re married and have kids. Being single, and young, you often have options in poverty that those with kids just don’t. The poorer you are, the less options you have, and that is exacerbated by any number of other factors - gender, race, having kids or elderly parents, where you live, etc.

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I knew the paterfamilias reasonably well, but I’m way outside the family’s social class so I haven’t been invited over there since he died a while back.

He was from old money. He liked to tell an amusing story about his family sending him by train to Canada during Prohibition, when he was 12 years old, to get whiskey for their garden parties. I think old money is almost always extremely frugal - they won’t pay one cent more than that eight-million-dollar yacht is worth, and they drink tap water not evian (evian is naive spelled backwards).

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Where I grew up, there were hardly any trees that weren’t drying plastic bags.

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I once worked for a family that I would consider rich. They washed and reused plastic bags and water bottles. The parents were middle aged in the early 90s, so way too young for the depression. The reason was conservation and ecology. They recycled, composted, sent kids’ lunches in reusable containers, etc. They were limousine liberals, and very nice people. I was “the help” but they treated me with kindness and respect. Actually it was a pretty sweet gig while it lasted.

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Its entirely possible he got his booze from my Great Grandfather! They made the money, that my Dad drank away, during prohibition! Oh irony!

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My maternal grandmother owned a bar in Riverside, CA for a few years before I was born. My older brother tells me that on occasion, she’d pick up my four older (school-age) siblings and take them down to Tijuana for the day. They’d come back with ten jugs of tequila for the bar, since at the time each person was allowed to bring back only two jugs across the border.

Nana was a character.

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Reading this thread has given me a new respect and appreciation for many of my long time fellow bb’ers. funny how something so simple like discussing our mutual struggles can engender such feelings.

you are all awesome

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totaly right…
Now hear this crazy thing.Here in Greece the safety net you talk anbout is exactly the family.If you dont have one ,there s nothing else to support you.
Indeed we are sat the tipping poinbt of the elderly becoming a burden for the younger,in every aspect.(in small and big scale too.the state is paying less and less every month ,for pensions,due to the lack of income.Today pensions run at 500 euros /month for elderly ,if you have worked.In my case i dont get nothing.not one cent.not even hospital treatment if something comes up .
But mind you ,this was a decision i took knowing all consequences on my life.(when i decided to not work ,and just enjoy life as i can).
Really it is possible but you need to give up lots of non basic needs.Then you can be free.
even with family.I met so many families with kids who were living a good life with nothing.(Portugal,rio Guadiana,Alcoutim is the pace ,expat mixed community,living off the land ,with no money.Stayed there one winter…It is possible i tells ya!!:):slight_smile:

If someone ever invents a time machine, we are ALL going back to hang out with your Nana, and help her get some tequila across the border… I don’t really care what it does to the time stream, we’re there!!!

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