Americans confuse need with 'nice to have' which leads to the "I don't have money for food/rent/hc" problem.

You do not need cable tv or home internet. You do not need an iPhone or top end Samsung. There are many mid-range Android phones much cheaper that can add a MVNO phone plan for around $20/mo that has more than enough data for necessary internet. Key word: necessary. OTA HDTV is available to many millions at the cost of an antenna (in window/attic/roof). Free books at the library. People give away old dvds and players for free. There is a thing called 'the outside'.

Look at the cars many of the people who complain about being squeezed are driving. Pickups for the sake of driving one. Lower/mid end BMW/Lexus/Mercedes. Giant SUVs when a smaller one will more than do. There are actually still relatively low priced vehicles available but they are plain jane and looked down upon.

I mention those things as I was head of an HOA for about 10 years and we regularly had owners who were in arrears or in and out of arrears. They would come before the board asking for waivers of late fees, interest and even the basic common charge. Yet they were aghast when the board suggested they drop their cable TV or swapped their expensive car lease for a beater. And heaven forbid you suggest they stop going to Starbucks as they sit in front of you asking forgiveness with a large latte in hand.

>You do not need cable tv or home internet.

I get your point and I generally agree with everything you've written, but I'm a bit at a loss on the home internet thing... our society is entirely tied to our connectivity at this point, so are you simply recommending people use their internet-connected mobile devices and forego another home provider? With you on the cable thing - even the streaming providers that were supposed to save us have become prohibitively expensive at this point.

Lazy Americans conflate anecdotes with reality. Make sure to hit the tropes though. The poor person with a Starbucks cup. The 'leased BMW bros are financial idiots'. The iPhone you have no idea where the person got (my son get's them as a christmas gift from his auntie). The cable bill (who under 50 has cable TV? What year is this post from?).

At best old boy discovered that human beings make inconsistent financial decisions when under stress because someone once held a latte cup, and thinks therefor people aren't struggling financially.

This is way too low effort/uninformative/nothing said to be the top comment. But it paints the correct narrative so those who don't want to see what's actually happening in this country probably love it.

> You do not need cable tv or home internet.

This is a deeply stupid comment. Right now, the way marginal people get any work is from from the internet, and people interviewing for even awful jobs expect you to get on zoom calls with them.

Every single step you expect people who can't afford to feed themselves makes them that much more unemployable. You don't need new shoes, you don't need a haircut. Hell, you don't even have to wash your clothes that often, I'm sure no one will notice, and washing your clothes costs enough to feed you for three days.

> head of an HOA

You sound like it.

I'd drop the HOA first, I sure as _hell_ don't need one of those.

The people I know who can't afford food or housing don't lease their cars (nor have they ever bought a car that was less than 5 years old) nor own a house, so I think we are considering a very different class of people.

> I was head of an HOA for about 10 years

This fully explains the rest of your screed against the working class.

I disagree with home Internet, I think that's pretty important these days.

The rest I largely agree with.

I have been poor and made all the sacrifices you suggest (heck, even gave up a car for public transportation), and, looking back, it made very little difference. Housing and food are just too expensive and dwarf other concerns.

It's crazy how cheap a decent phone can be, I'm talking a $160 Motorolla phone with 8GB of RAM

This is so out of touch it is almost comical.

This is anecdotal but here is the truth: I have a home that I bought around 20 years ago in Cali, and the HOA tripled during that time and is now rapidly approaching $700/mo. And that's with less benefits since we lost the earthquake insurance. And not to mention the special assessments that started showing up in 2025. You could make all sort of assumptions, but there is nothing special about the community.

this is something i strongly desire for people close to me to learn

i dont think it sticks if i preach at them but think it would if i somehow engineered a way for them to "find out for themselves"

are there approachable resources (not Dave Ramsey, please) to make this stick?

It wouldn't be America if people didn't blame the poor for everything. Surely, the housing crisis is just stupid poor people drinking too many lattes, there is certainly no greater issue there, nope.