Are you poor?

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I personally feel just barely above destitution.

I grew up in rural poverty and my parents died very early in my young adulthood with no assets. So...no healthcare or sense of security for about the last 10 years. I did become a first generation college graduate, although it appears to be worthless.

I feel at war all the time about it. Really though...I never feel at ease. I feel like the wealthy are waging a kind of genetic class warfare to impoverish the literal genome of anyone not closely related to them, and everything in society reminds me of it. This has become an obsession...deconstructing class from a scientific perspective, especially as it relates to the motivations given to us by our evolutionary biology.


This desperation has led to several outcomes that appear rational: 1) Utilize the skill set I've been building for almost 20 years to create commercially viable music. It is a possibility and I have no shame as a classically trained composer to get my hands dirty with modern pop. 2) Save to immigrate to Europe for access to more education so I can get a profitable degree, or 3) In the absence of hope for the first two options, to commit suicide after writing, with proper citations from academic journals regarding genetics and neurochemistry, the strongest intellectual case I think could be made for the mass extermination of the wealthiest dynasties as categorized by genetic relatedness.


This issue of inequality and the genetic ramifications of it, fueled by my own experiences of poverty and witnessing the ruin of my home community, could not illicit a greater emotional or intellectual devotion for me personally. I perseverate on it from the mildest of stimuli in my environment.

IMHO, the super-rich are aware of the dangers of inbreeding, and open to exceptional mates from any background. Their dynasties are not built on genetic inheritance as much as on the natural tendency of genetics to produce a few psychopaths, and the ability of those individuals to funnel wealth to other psychopaths, and to corporations built in their image but operated by ordinary people trapped like mitochondria in a cell.

I think I'm the same poor as most people my age. I've got $70,000 in student loan debt, I live in a studio apartment that is ridiculously expensive and I work for a library that, while it pays better than most jobs, it still isn't enough to feel secure. I'm somehow able to make ends meet each month and still contribute to my retirement accounts, but money is a big stressor.

When I speak of genetic warfare, I am referring to the findings within the field of epigenetics which demonstrate that persistent resource scarcity and stress over generations will cause alterations to their genome which causes them to be increasingly susceptible to environmental triggers which can cause maladaptive behavior, like for instance increased vulnerability to PTSD or even things as simple as consumeristic impulse control.

Those born into a pedigree which has experience resource abundance for generations will have less of these vulnerabilities and will have, on average, superior emotional regulation and executive functioning.

While I do think many at the pinnacles of power in our world are psychopaths, I suspect the root of inequality is not the ill will of dangerous individuals but instead family dynamics in which the motivations of average individuals may permit injustice due to the biological drive to perpetuate to greatest prosperity possible the progeny of oneself and those one is closely related to.

The reality of the situation is that a small amount of successful "genetic clusters" are dominating the rest and quite literally degrading the genetic fortitude of the most vulnerable increasingly imperiling those not yet in a state of overwhelming scarcity and stress.

^^ Good points. The pre-Coumbian wisdom on Vancouver Island held that after a tribe had suffered a disaster from a Tsunami, red tide, or other calamity, it took four generations for the descendants to get over the PTSD. Genes were probably involved too. Lysenko was dismissed too readily in the west, we now discover.

Other ways the plutocrats stay on top seem to include quietly funding every conflict and distraction that does not touch them. They also hobble us in education. With computers, almost everyone could be a whiz at checking if payments or insurance is a good deal. Instead, kids are not taught to structure problems at all, but instead, madly arcane methods to get the same result as a calculator.

with means both obvious and arcane, the .1% hobbles the rest of us, keeping us under their thumb. living out in the sticks enables me to imagine at least, that i am not a part of that mess, even though i am for sure. in my working years i was strictly the lower half of the working-class. nobody i was familiar with at work was not lower-working class. oh sure, i saw people at work [i worked on a large military base] and about who were middle and upper-middle-class. i had nothing in common with those types, it was like we didn't share a common frame of reference. i have wealthy relatives but seldom see them, they tolerate me and are unfailingly civil, but it feels like i am an insect on the window glass of their world, looking in. if it were not for my late parents, i'd have been living under a bridge somewhere, quite possibly no longer among the living. at present i live in what some term "genteel poverty."

Yes, I've been poor all my life and not sort of kind of poor I mean making less than 19,000 a year poor. I live in a small house that's falling a part I have than 300 dollars in my bank account I work a retail job right now I don't have a car or anything. I have a mold problem and can't afford to remove it. Some of my windows are broken. I used duck tap to keep the draft out.

I don't invite anyone over because my house is in such bad shape. And I know some people say well you're not poor compared to people in other countries and that's true I suppose but I'm talking about being poor here in America and trust me when I say that I qualify. I know there people all over the world that use this website I'm just talking about me being a poor American though (personally)

The first time I realized I was poor was when I was like 7 or 8 and went over for a sleepover and this girl had such a nice house. She had two parents and mother who cooked breakfast in the morning. It really woke me up to my situation. We lived in two different worlds. Of course I never invited her over, and some people say real friends don't judge your financial situation and you shouldn't be embarrassed. I argue that if you had a house like mines you wouldn't invite anyone over either.

^^^Hiya Chastity and welcome to WP

I hate the "you're not poor compared to people in country X." Well duh, if I was I wouldn't be using my time talking to those people since I'd be too busy looking for food or working just so I could afford food and other basics. Just because others somewhere far away have it even worse doesn't make my problems meaningless, especially since me having it hard doesn't make it any easier for those even more unfortunate... ironically, these same people complain to me a lot when they get a little sick or a broken bone or something and I have to fight the urge to yell: "Stop complaining, at least you aren't disabled for life!" I mean yes, they have the right to feel bad and sad about their problems, but they're such hypocrites for telling me to stop complaining about being poor (by local standards) when they complain about minor injuries and sicknesses when they know they're talking to a woman with a birth defect that has almost taken her life and that has a constant effect on what she can and can't do in her life.

^^^i would avoid those hypocrites like the toxins they are.

From January 2019: "The Social Security Administration (SSA) tracks net income numbers after taxes through the Average Wage Index (AWI). We broke the AWI into a three-part hierarchy of $5K increments, letting you easily see the reality of income inequality in the U.S.. Astonishingly, 13% of workers make less than $5K, and nearly half, or 48%, take home $31,561 or less in net compensation (the dark red on our visual). If your mind isn’t spinning yet, consider the fact that these numbers are all after a multi-year economic recovery. The U.S. is allegedly at or near full employment but wages are barely growing, meaning these numbers are probably the best case scenario. Imagine what a recession would do to worker paychecks." https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01- ... less-30000

the largely sadistic wealthy in this nation, not content with their largely ill-gotten gains, have to badmouth the rest of us to boot, saying we're lazy and stupid. what's up with that?

As would I, but one of them is my mom and while I could handle other stuff in my life without her, I know I'm gonna need her help again when my disability starts acting up big time and I'll need a surgery or some other complicated help again. I can't handle those types of doctor's visits on my own... or maybe I should just take the risk and try next time?

The rest are colleagues and relatives. I can put up with the first group by just not listening (I can't afford to quit my job and it's not like they annoy me that much) and I already avoid the relatives pretty well.

It's a shame you can't live with your parents...

Until the pension arrived, I seldom had $15,000 little Canadian dollars a year, and I supported research on that. Why not move into a smaller place in better shape? Or, learn home repair. That will always help with your rent, and could be an income. Replacing windows is pretty easy. One caveat - if you are not asking the landlord for repairs, don't show them yours, or the rent will go up.

I have thoughts along similar lines.

Including your comments I snipped about the 0.1%

Whilst I have living parents - who are stupidly wealthy compared to their own parents (who lived in really basic council houses) my father told me "You're getting nothing!" - not that I asked - and my mother indicated she'll blow everything she has anyway.. seemingly just to spite me for being born... but I expect to die before her anyway.. so there's nothing waiting for me. Neither of them are particularly bothered about whether I have food to eat, and I've had food donated to me by the church three times now.. [edit : oh yeah actual destitution, because I believe the definition of that is choosing between essentials like food and heating]

I've lived on nothing for 19 of the past 20 years. From the outside maybe not obvious, however I was bankrupted, had £30 a week for about 6 years for all food and bills except electricity (UK readers you know how poor that is!).. I remember borrowing £20 one Christmas eve to put gas on the meter so I didn't freeze, but I had no food. Then for years since, just the bare minimum to survive on, no savings, no career, no hope, no future..

That is until about a year ago.. I now have a much better amount of money coming in. It's not a negative amount ! ! But I'm conditioned now I'm stuck in the constant anxiety / trauma of 18 years hardship, and it's also temporary, this is the UK which is now a toxic environment for people with disabilities who are being gaslighted, denigrated, and put through a welfare system that is literally psychological torture. The amount of money I'm getting reduces anxiety about day to day bills, but not overall anxiety. Disability denial is a reality in the UK. "Brown envelope syndrome" - "Vivaldi" - anyone relate? I'm due for another round of that soon which will no doubt make me very sick and poor again.

Like yourself I have concluded, either I'm going to hit on something that makes me money quick, or win the lottery which is about as likely, or I'll probably end up killing myself. All I want is a roof over my head and food to eat. There is no hope or future in the UK, if you depend on the state, constant fear is the order of the day - the worst thing is knowing you can do nothing to help it!

The history books will write about this democide - there are some ministers who should be up in the Hague