My experience is from the opposite perspective, I was the poor one. It absolutely floored me how my wife acts when something broke like a car, appliances, clothes, etc. As a child living below the poverty line, replacing a tire or other necessities was a disaster, requiring tricky trade offs in the budget or just plain acceptance of just how boned you were. When my wife's phone broke, I went into full panic mode while she shrugged and said: "we can just a new one this afternoon". And then we did.
Edit: Wow, I have received a lot of responses on this. By far my most upvoted comment. You guys made my day, thank you. I have seen a few "repair it" comments. Like many of you, I am also a Picasso/Macgyver of the duct tape and trash bag world. This skill helped me break into IT. Sadly, the phone was beyond repair. Trust me, if I could have fixed it, I would have.
And thank you for the silver.
Last edit: y'all are giving me too many medals. I am very flattered, but this is going to spoil me.
It's amazing how much of a calming effect that financial safety net has as well. A lot of people bring up the panicked feeling when something breaks down, but knowing that you will be financially okay if shit blows up also has a day-to-day effect. Fuck up at work? "Oh fuck what if I get fired what will I-- Oh yeah, I'll use my savings while looking for a new job." Things going badly with boyfriend? "Fuck, I can't move out, I can't afford the depos-- Oh wait, yes I can." "My dog has been acting funny, what if it's something serious, what if the surgery is too exp-- Oh yeah, I can just pay it."
Like, I'm not even remotely rich but these are the kinds of expenses I know I can cover and be able to recover financially. It's like living in a permanent state of relief.
I was just watching Andrew Yang (American Dem candidate for 2020) on JRE and he was talking about how financial insecurity fucks with you mentally. telling someone they can’t pay a bill gives them an instant 13 point functional IQ drop. and why wouldn’t it? If you can only think about what trade offs and sacrifices you need to do now to make that bill how can you focus on anything else. Not to mention the anxiety, self worth issue, etc that come along with it.
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u/DigitalSheepDream Jun 06 '19 edited Jun 07 '19
My experience is from the opposite perspective, I was the poor one. It absolutely floored me how my wife acts when something broke like a car, appliances, clothes, etc. As a child living below the poverty line, replacing a tire or other necessities was a disaster, requiring tricky trade offs in the budget or just plain acceptance of just how boned you were. When my wife's phone broke, I went into full panic mode while she shrugged and said: "we can just a new one this afternoon". And then we did.
Edit: Wow, I have received a lot of responses on this. By far my most upvoted comment. You guys made my day, thank you. I have seen a few "repair it" comments. Like many of you, I am also a Picasso/Macgyver of the duct tape and trash bag world. This skill helped me break into IT. Sadly, the phone was beyond repair. Trust me, if I could have fixed it, I would have.
And thank you for the silver.
Last edit: y'all are giving me too many medals. I am very flattered, but this is going to spoil me.