If you can't buy land/housing in one up front payment that means you're poor. amirite?

That's a very arbitrary definition of poverty.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

That point of view might be valid if you live in America. In many European countries, if you can't pay rent or can't work anymore, the social system steps in so you don't lose everything.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Must be great to have a safety net 😢

by Useful-Flatworm 2 days ago

It is. Though I personally hope that I never need it. Though tbh I needed it once in my life when I had an accident shortly after I finished University. I got paid some social assistance for around 2 months until I recovered and were able to find a job.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

I mean sure? But if you can't pay, then you also can't pay for electricity, water, heat, or food, that too will fk you over, doesn't matter if you have a home or not.

by Malika78 2 days ago

I dunno about that, heat is needed in the winter where I live, if I don't get that then I will die, and the home alone isn't going to heat me up, and without electricity my gas heater can't work, plus I can't cook or heat the food.

by Malika78 2 days ago

The general assumption is that if you have shelter then you can acquire heating. Without shelter you can't acquire heat.

by Useful-Flatworm 2 days ago

Still, I would say even if you have shelter, if you can't afford to heat it and all the other basic needs, then you are poor. Even if you don't own the house, as you aren't done with the payments, if you can afford it and basic needs then you aren't poor. There is nothing poor about having a home, and paying it off over years, while you have enough income to be able to buy things you want.

by Malika78 2 days ago

That's just my opinion. I gauging poverty based on the risk of losing housing due to non-payment. You can't lose housing for non-payment if you're not making payments.

by Useful-Flatworm 2 days ago

350k? Man. Some houses around me go for more than that over the asking price.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

That's just an example.

by Useful-Flatworm 2 days ago

I'm not saying you're poor because you chose to make payments. I'm saying if you had no other choice than to make payments that means you're poor. It's true most can't afford to pay for housing in one payment because most people are poor. Poverty and not having liquidity are two different things.

by Useful-Flatworm 2 days ago

I couldn't pay for it in one go. You are also not answering any of my arguments, like how not all land/housing costs the same, so does that mean if I can afford any land/housing i'm not poor? Again me not being able to pay 300k makes me poor, but someone being able to pay 50k for some land aren't? This just makes no sense to use as a way to say if someone is poor or not.

by Malika78 2 days ago

If you can afford any home in one payment where you live you're not poor.

by Useful-Flatworm 2 days ago

What qualify as a home, 1 bed 1 bath? No garage? And RV? A truck that's been converted into something livable? All these things wildly different in price, but are all livable and provide what you need. Also if you can afford to pay a lump sum of the house but cant afford anything else after because you spent too much are you still not poor because you "bought a house in a lump sum "?

by Objective-Crew3846 2 days ago

Any permanent space you can occupy indefinitely is what I'm calling a home. You can't be poor if you have housing. The lowest you can go is no liquidity.

by Useful-Flatworm 2 days ago

So if I cant afford a 400k house in this economy I'm poor in your eyes, but if I, the same person, buy an RV for 10k then I'm well off? Why did your opinion/definition on me change when I just showed i didnt have 390k?

by Objective-Crew3846 2 days ago

The RV isn't the home it's just a shelter. The place you park it is the home. Buying a RV doesn't make you not poor.

by Useful-Flatworm 2 days ago

So if I buy a 400k RV in still poor? Your arguments really make no sense man, what makes an RV not a home? What makes it different to you other than the price point?

by Objective-Crew3846 2 days ago

That's a weird way of telling people that daddy pays your way through life.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

This is the stupidest thing I've read in a long time, and I'm guessing you've never bought a house before or even rented an apartment.

by SweatyNoise5992 2 days ago

I rented an apartment twice. Never bought a house. I did buy land. I've also been homeless several times. 98% of my life I was poor.

by Useful-Flatworm 2 days ago

Then they're not poor. I'm talking about can someone afford the housing they have access to. A millionaire who has $1,000,000 liquid cash isn't poor.

by Useful-Flatworm 2 days ago

Right now someone can with $1,000,000 cash can buy housing just about anywhere in the world. If they're paying mortgages they're choosing to not out of necessity.

by Useful-Flatworm 2 days ago

Well then a significant majority of people in the country are poor then because most people don't have 200k lying around to pay for a house outright.

by osvaldogottlieb 2 days ago

Well aren't most people poor nowadays anyway

by Anonymous 2 days ago

But by OP's logic, if they can afford any type of land/housing, small or not, then they aren't poor.

by Malika78 2 days ago

Correct! Any permanent housing you physically have access to.

by Useful-Flatworm 2 days ago

So if I find a house or room or something, that costs 10k or something, which I can afford then even if I don't buy it i'm not poor? Also where I live your house aren't just taken from you if you can't pay, there are some systems to help with it to a degree.

by Malika78 2 days ago

Yes! As long as it is available for purchase and you have liquidity to acquire it you're not poor.

by Useful-Flatworm 2 days ago

200K for a house? That's a dream. You can barely get a run-down studio apartment for 400k here.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

whenhad to leave my absent dad after my mother passed away, my grandma bought mt aunt and i house to live in this was 2007 the house was 175,000, not its at least 500,000 dollars.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Exactly. Being told we aren't poor is the largest conspiracy in American history.

by Useful-Flatworm 2 days ago