New warning labels for cigs

[Brad Johnson]

Employment and income is something we often can't control. I about got canned last year and couldn't get a job interview with about 1/2 of my applications and the other half did't see me as a valuable potential employee.

What you do WITH the income is what can work for or against you. What the US calls poor is a cruel injustice to the people suffering in the real world, but my broke friends tend to continuously waste $ and will probably never dig out of their hole. Most keep digging deeper.

It is interesting the apples to oranges comparison of "poor". In the "real world" (I'm guessing you mean elsewhere since you specifically mentioned it as a counter to the US), how much does it cost to live vs. the costs in the US? Does that matter?

It's also interesting how genuinely poor people in the US get lumped in with every negative stereotype some people can find. As if that's the norm they need to believe in. What's up with that?

 

[Brad Johnson]

In the non-frugal sense, I'd be more than willing to make that claim.

I meant the description in it's entirety. More of them than people genuinely trying, people who lost everything due to job loss or illness, etc.?

 

[sloasdaylight]

And how do you know what everyone in this situation is doing to better themselves or not? See the problem yet?

I don't know. Am I going to go ahead and give people the benefit of the doubt and say that they're all busting their hump and just getting unlucky? No. I've been burned by that line before.

And if things don't get better despite your best efforts (which AFAIK can and does still happen) do you remain simply having hard times in perpetuity?

If things don't get better and you've exhausted every opportunity to make it get better then that just sucks. Life's a bitch, and then you die.

Everyone is not broke from time to time but that'll probably be seen as nitpicking vs. a poor way to try and make a point.



Cool... but that's what you appeared to have done and why I responded as I did. I guess you could've mentioned that on my first post.

Meh, I thought it was an interesting direction to go in. I wasn't/am not opposed to talking to it, I just found it to be an interesting observation.

 

[CapnSev]

I am not a smoker, but all of these gross, weird anti-smoking ads are starting to piss me off.

 

[Brad Johnson]

Don't worry, grab a cigarette. It has a calming effect on many people.

 

[spade2you]

It is interesting the apples to oranges comparison of "poor". In the "real world" (I'm guessing you mean elsewhere since you specifically mentioned it as a counter to the US), how much does it cost to live vs. the costs in the US? Does that matter?

It's also interesting how genuinely poor people in the US get lumped in with every negative stereotype some people can find. As if that's the norm they need to believe in. What's up with that?

By real world, I'm implying places outside of the US, where poverty basically means starvation or something close. I'm not saying that everyone in the US is living on easy street, but our definition is very different from that of a Third World Nation's.

No, I'm not lumping all poor US people into the same category, but given that common sense has become an oxymoron, I really don't have much problem with saying that frugality isn't "our thing" in the US.

Here's a small example. I live near an intersection. It's not the busiest intersection in town, but an average one. Given our need to conserve petroleum products, at any given time, I can hear people peeling out or having to power break.

At work, maybe 1/4th (give or take) will bring their lunches.

What's the price of a beer at home vs. one in a bar?

Check cashing places are everywhere I look and seemingly tied in with tattoo parlors. I'm not inherently against either, but if you're broke, they're hardly good ideas.

These are just a few small examples, but everything adds up. I'm not a total tight wad, but I know how to save a little here n' there.

 

[Munjibunga]

Not all of them of course, but there are plenty of them (as well as cigars) with some very classy looking packaging.

Of course that is part of the idea. But sometimes you see them on the shelf and it just feels like a bit of a shame for them to be covered up.

Maybe they should put some purple mountains on the packages. I'm about to go bananas over your perspective. Are you saying you actually derive some sort of pleasure from looking at the packaging of certain tobacco products, and you're disapointed that these warnings are ruining it for you? My mind is turgid with incredulity and confusion all rolled into one.

 

[Brad Johnson]

I don't know. Am I going to go ahead and give people the benefit of the doubt and say that they're all busting their hump and just getting unlucky? No. I've been burned by that line before.

You just go from one extreme to the other, apparently based on being burned by what I'm sure you'd have to admit is a relatively small sampling of people.

I didn't say that everyone was trying. You are saying most aren't.

If things don't get better and you've exhausted every opportunity to make it get better then that just sucks. Life's a bitch, and then you die.

So would they die poor... or just having a hard time?

Meh, I thought it was an interesting direction to go in. I wasn't/am not opposed to talking to it, I just found it to be an interesting observation.

Cool.

 

[spade2you]

I meant the description in it's entirety. More of them than people genuinely trying, people who lost everything due to job loss or illness, etc.?

I was not speaking in job loss or illness, although to a finite extent, our health is our choice, but not always. I am just speaking of what is done with excess or leftover funds.

 

[Deluge Of Sound]

...My mind is turgid with incredulity...

Great phrasing.

And, funnily enough, exactly how I feel about other parts of this thread.

On the other hand, thanks to TB, I have officially learned that I am poor. I must be a bad American.

 

[sloasdaylight]

You just go from one extreme to the other, apparently based on being burned by what I'm sure you'd have to admit is a relatively small sampling of people.

I didn't say that everyone was trying. You are saying most aren't.

What I'm saying is that I'm not giving the benefit of the doubt to the large percentage of the people in our country who are consistently poor. Call me an idealist or what have you, but I'm one of those people who believes in the value of hard work and thinks, and has seen before, that hard work pays off in the end, and that everyone can bust their hump and succeed. The realist in me knows it doesn't always cause life just sucks some times, however. If my great grandfather can come off the boat from Spain at 15 in the early 20th century without speaking a lick of English, and by the time he died from a heart disease at 40 years later own his own mechanic shop, home, and support a family, then you can get out of poverty (obviously using the impersonal you).

So would they die poor... or just having a hard time?


Depends on who was writing the obit.

Cool.

 

[Brad Johnson]

By real world, I'm implying places outside of the US, where poverty basically means starvation or something close. I'm not saying that everyone in the US is living on easy street, but our definition is very different from that of a Third World Nation's.

As it should be IMO. You can't really do much here for "pennies a day".

I don't take poverty to necessarily mean starvation or something close. I'm sure there are people elsewhere who are considered poor but not to the point of starvation or something else. They're still poor.

No, I'm not lumping all poor US people into the same category, but given that common sense has become an oxymoron, I really don't have much problem with saying that frugality isn't "our thing" in the US.

Common sense has been an oxymoron regardless of income here for a long time. Yet the people who aren't broke aren't typically the ones who are villified.

Here's a small example. I live near an intersection. It's not the busiest intersection in town, but an average one. Given our need to conserve petroleum products, at any given time, I can hear people peeling out or having to power break.

I live near a high school. I hear this often enough... in later model cars their parents bought them. So I'm missing the poverty angle.

At work, maybe 1/4th (give or take) will bring their lunches.

Can they afford not to? Have they foregone something else in order to do this? These are obvious questions that come to me.

What's the price of a beer at home vs. one in a bar?

The trick being getting the other person home to give them the beer that cost you less.

Check cashing places are everywhere I look and seemingly tied in with tattoo parlors. I'm not inherently against either, but if you're broke, they're hardly good ideas.

If you're broke you probably don't have a bank account. If you got paid by check in that predicament, where would you cash it?

These are just a few small examples, but everything adds up. I'm not a total tight wad, but I know how to save a little here n' there.

Yes, those are examples for people with options. I'm simply saying that for many, those options aren't as prevalent. Not an excuse, it is what it is. As such I choose not to attempt to paint an entire group with a pretty dry brush.

 

[Brad Johnson]

You don't really know what the large percentage of people in this country are doing. Right?

 

[canadian_man_44]

Here's why pictures on cigarette packages really don't make a difference. If you don't want to look at it, put em in a case. If you don't have the money to buy a nice one like this, get a cheap plastic one at the dollarstore.

 

[spade2you]

Dear Brad, most of us are entirely too lazy to respond to each quote!

 

[sloasdaylight]

You don't really know what the large percentage of people in this country are doing. Right?

Know for a fact? No. If I implied I did earlier I was wrong. What however I don't have a problem with however is extrapolating based on what is an admittedly smallish sample size, but of people who fit perfectly into the stereotype of the person who is living in poverty. Stereotypes exist for a reason.

 

[Brad Johnson]

Dear Brad, most of us are entirely too lazy to respond to each quote!

Lazy like poor people?



Learning to type is easy.

 

[Brad Johnson]

Know for a fact? No. If I implied I did earlier I was wrong. What however I don't have a problem with however is extrapolating based on what is an admittedly smallish sample size, but of people who fit perfectly into the stereotype of the person who is living in poverty. Stereotypes exist for a reason.

I agree... they exist for people too lazy to look at things realisitically in real time.

 

[spade2you]

Lazy like poor people?



Learning to type is easy.

Never said they were lazy. Actually, I'm "working" and need to look relatively busy.

 

[Brad Johnson]

Never said they were lazy. Actually, I'm "working" and need to look relatively busy.

Wasn't saying you did. Just staying in the spirit of the tangent