On Poverty

Much of the same thing is going on in poorer parts of central Phoenix.

Look at all the money people make running title loan and check advance services. I can keep the lights on today by getting a car title loan with the idea I can cut back on expenses enough and find more money elsewhere to repay the loan by the time the bill comes due. It's made certain people millions of dollars while not doing much for the loan recipients.

And the kind of people who know exactly what any military rank makes would have no problem accessing public information like welfare or disability rates. It's not just car loans, it's rent, as well. 'All the market will bear', and they know to the penny what it will bear.

It seems to me that there are people who don't get suckered in to such "deals."

I remember--back in my youth--that there was this scam going on (maybe it's still going on) where guys in vans would approach younger guys in mall/strip mall parking lots and say that they just delivered some speakers to a club, but had a couple leftover that they would sell for $200 each or so. Shells. Heavy and real-looking, but shells. I never actually met anyone has admitted to buying some of these speakers, but I'm sure it must have worked, because it was a frequent thing, once upon a time.

Now, the above is illegal, and I let the police know about this a couple of different times.

But other things that are all about salesmanship, well they're not illegal. And anyone can get taken in both legal and illegal deals that are basically swindles (like all of Madoff's clients) by a skilled huckster. Shit, Don will probably be along in a few to point out how we're all getting taken by the hucksters in DC, election after election.

What can be profitable is knowing who's a good mark, whether they are such because of need, gullibility, or both.

robeiae said:

It seems to me that there are people who don't get suckered in to such "deals."

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When I was in the Army, one of the guys in my company, a PFC, went and bought a new car right out of Basic Training. A freaking Porsche, if I remember correctly. The car payments and insurance ate up most of his pay, but he lived in the barracks so all his living expenses were covered.

Meanwhile, I started a direct deposit into a mutual fund.

I wonder what he's doing nowadays.

I remember--back in my youth--that there was this scam going on (maybe it's still going on) where guys in vans would approach younger guys in mall/strip mall parking lots and say that they just delivered some speakers to a club, but had a couple leftover that they would sell for $200 each or so. Shells. Heavy and real-looking, but shells. I never actually met anyone has admitted to buying some of these speakers, but I'm sure it must have worked, because it was a frequent thing, once upon a time.

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Heck, apparently there are still people sending money to Nigerian princes.

It sounds like the article is positing that there are slumlords who make a lot of money by gouging the urban poor. This doesn't surprise me one bit.

In fact, rents are crazy across the entire economic spectrum, especially in many urban and suburban areas. We couldn't rent a house in our relatively modest, working-class neighborhood as for a price that's anywhere comparable to our mortgage payments (house was purchased in 2001). I heard an story on the radio about eviction courts the other day about how many urban poor are paying well over 50% of their income in rent each month, which means that even a minor financial setback puts them out on the street.

Rents are often cheaper in rural areas, but there are other issues keeing people poor there (like virtually no jobs at all and the necessity of having a reliable car to get to whatever jobs exist out there). It's easy to tell rural poor (or people who live in cities like Flint) that they should pull up stakes and move where the jobs are, but they can't afford to move when their homes (if they own them) are unsalable, and the rents in the places with more and better jobs are un-affordable.

Amadan said:

Heck, apparently there are still people sending money to Nigerian princes.

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I haven't gotten one of those e-mails in years. My favorite was the one that was so badly translated, the person asking for money said, "Because I am very greedy woman, I need..."

We get robo calls on the old, spiderwebby landline phone from the "Internal Revenue Services" from time to time that try to convince us there's some problem with our taxes that will land us in jail unless we write a fat check RIGHT NOW. I think those target recent immigrants and other people who don't know how the system works or how the IRS does contact people if there's a mistake on their return (they do it by mail) from a previous year.

Poorer people do make poor choices sometimes, but that's not the main reason there's so much poverty in this country, I don't think. And a penchant for poor choices can result from chronic poverty too.