[Music] Being poor is really expensive. For example, I need a new used car, but I can only afford a car that's about the $2,000 to $3,000 range. I can't really afford anything from a dealership or to get not alone. After scrimping and saving and looking at cars for months and months, cars that had all sorts of crap wrong with them, I found one that seemed like okay and seemed like trustworthy people to buy from. I went over to them, checked out the car, gave them my hard-earned money, and then on the way home, I had a blowout. And then after I had a tow truck, a very expensive tow truck because I can't afford to have AAA tow me to a repair shop. I get told that three out of the four tires need to be replaced. And also the wheel well that's holding one of the tires on is messed up and that needs to be fixed. So now this cheap car has cost me an extra $400. And then driving it home from the repair shop, the blinkers go out. Plus a myriad of other problems with this car that I don't know about yet. money that I don't really have that I've been saving for months in order to have a car that I thought would be reliable and take me around town because I never will be able to afford a new car. And that's just one of many examples on how poor people having to buy lower quality stuff means that they spend more money over time maintaining that shitty stuff or buying more of that shitty stuff than someone who could just buy the nicer thing. I just had to ask my mom for my birthday money early and 50 of it is going to gas. I cannot wait to spend the other 50 on three things from the grocery store. Have me to black them out. Being poor in America is very, very, very expensive. So, in today's video, you're going to be watching videos of people renting about being poor in America and how expensive it is. Growing up, my mom was always saying that it's expensive to be poor and the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And I was reminded of that today because I was going through my bank statements and I had a charge in December for $12 and it was marked as monthly maintenance fee, but I had never had that before and I haven't had it in the month since. So, I chatted with like the little robot whatever person on Bank of America and I asked them like, "What's up with this $12 fee?" And the lady looks into it and she's like, "Oh, yeah, like there's this monthly maintenance fee, but we wave it if you either have a deposit over this amount each month. Your account balance is over this amount or you're a preferred like member." And I'm thinking and I'm realizing like that was the month when I was between serving full-time and looking for my new job. So like I didn't have a paycheck or anything deposited. My account had gone below a certain level. But then I'm like, "Oh wait, like I'm a preferred rewards member, whatever it is." She's like, "Oh yeah, like we actually looked at your account when it got below this certain level and you're no longer preferred." So I'm like, "Okay, Dan, like you're really kicking me when I'm down. like I have the least amount of money I've ever had and I don't have a deposit and then you charge me more on top of it. But ultimately like whatever it's $12 and I'm lucky that doesn't really matter to me right now. But then I was thinking of when I was younger and like my mom and I were really struggling and one of our biggest sources of income was like my Dunkin Donuts paycheck which was maybe like 140 bucks a week and how we were constantly getting late fees and they were always $35. It was like overdraft protection. So basically what would happen is like I have $55 in my bank account. Keep in mind we're not even using credit cards. It's straight debit. So we're not even like overspending on credit. Like we're just this is all the money we have. We're using it for basic necessities. And it'd be like all right. I have $55 in my bank account. The phone bill, whatever the hits $70. Okay. 15. Okay. Immediate negative 35 for the overdraft protection fee. So now it's like a negative $50. My next paycheck comes in, it takes $50 out of that. So then like the next bill we're short $20 and it's just like an ever evolving cycle of every month, normally like two times a month, we're paying 70 bucks in overdraft fees. And it's funny because that overdraft fee was over 20% of my weekly income. But to someone who made $1,000 a week or $2,000 a week or $100,000 a week, they would one never notice that fee if they ever got it, but two, they would never get that fee because their account would never go below zero. They would never not have the deposit. They just would never run into that problem. And that's why it's so expensive being poor. And the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This can be applied to so many other things. So, for example, I just had to renew my car insurance and it was for 6 months. If I paid for the 6 months in advance, I think it was like $550, I want to say. But if I didn't, it would be a total of like 750 over the 6 months. So, I'm able to save $200 if I can pay it all at once. But otherwise, if I can't, I have to pay $200 more. And if you're poor, guess what option you're going with? Because you have no other option. And the kicker is that $200 savings would really mean a lot to you, but you don't have that option. And it's the same thing with car payments and student loans and even things like the quality of your shoes or your jackets. Like you're buying the cheaper pair of shoes, that's all you can afford. You have to buy a new pair the next year. Parking tickets even like you park on the street cuz you can't afford a parking spot. You get ticketed. Someone who can afford a parking spot, if they got that parking ticket, it wouldn't matter that much. But to you it does. So you fight it in court. You have to take time off work. It just it compounds and it compounds and it truly is crazy. It's the same thing we see nowadays with Trump and the Republicans and how like the bottom 20 40 60% pays the most in taxes and the billionaires pay the least. Even though the taxes that the poorest people pay hit them the hardest. It's such a big percentage of their income and actually matters because every $20 actually matters to poor people. And the rich people, they barely pay their share. And even if they paid what they were supposed to, they wouldn't even notice. Drives me insane. It just made it more expensive to be poor. Elon's assistant still has to sign it to set it in stone. He signs whatever's in front of him. But overdraft fees, when you go to the bank and you swipe your card for $10, but you only have eight and it still goes through and they charge you five bucks for that. Yeah, get rid of that $5 limit. They just voted 52 to 48 to make that the rule. You're overcharging poor people for being poor so that the next time they give money, they already start out in the negative. And y'all voted to raise that number because $5 is not enough. Was it Door Dash this week that signed up with Clara? Hold on. Yep. Look that up. That's real. So now you can put your four McNuggets on a four-week plan. You just pay for one nugget a week. And if you do that enough, you'll never get ahead in life because it's a trap. How will they get new yachts without this? I'm sure it's a it's a good sign when you can put chicken nuggets on a payment plan. We are making nuggets more affordable to families. You couldn't get nuggets under Joe Biden. I'll tell you that. Joe Biden never cared about you having nuggets. I'm so tired. Being poor is so damn expensive. You don't have insurance and you can't afford to go to the doctor, then you have to have a $4,000 procedure a couple years down the line. you have to go online and pay your bills, they're going to charge you a 1.5% fee. If you are late on a bill and they charge you a $100 fee. If I couldn't afford the bill in the first place, how am I going to afford the damn fee? If your bank goes in overdraft, they're going to charge you $35. Being poor is expensive. And I think that has been the best thing that has come out of this conversation is that people are finally acknowledging that poverty for most people is not a choice. It is the result of circumstances within this country that make it to where people are working 40, 50, 60 hours a week and still cannot afford to exist in this country. They can't afford basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, any of that. And the thing is, it wasn't just in the last four years that this started happening. People have been poor for quite some time and that is absolutely ridiculous. Your car breaks down, you can't get your car fixed, so then you can't make it to work and you get it's just too much. a better world is possible. The biggest cause of crime is poverty and the biggest barrier to education is food insecurity. Giving social support to lower inome communities makes this country safer and healthier which should be the goal of every political party. It is very expensive to be poor. In the last video gave the example of clothing and how buying cheap clothing is going to last you that long scene of going through a lot of clothing. This is also true in banking. A lot of poor people do not have access to bank accounts or have bank accounts at all. So, they end up going to like check cashing businesses which then charges you a fee and takes money out of your paycheck. When it comes to foods, a lot of poor people do not have access to groceries or places with healthy options. They end up spending their money on fast food or convenience places which essentially cost more. Also, depending on your zip code, you may be charged even higher prices for things like gas and utilities. So, a small apartment in a poverished neighborhood is going to pay more utilities compared to a large house in a wealthy neighborhood. And the scam of all of this is that the only way to really get out of poverty is to make more money, which if you're working two jobs, then when do you actually have time to get out of poverty and find somewhere else where you can make money? People are always looking for a short-term solution because again, they're short on time. Unfortunately, short-term solutions are just that they are shortterm and they typically do not work out in the long term. Being poor actually costs more. Just take a look at these food prices at small versus big stores. The prices at small stores are on average between 30 to 50% higher than those at a larger store like your Costco or Trader Joe's. This is known as a food desert, as many big stores don't want to put their locations in lower income neighborhoods. We can see this in action by looking up Trader Joe's and seeing that there are literally no locations near lower income neighborhoods like Compton, but there are a lot of locations located on the west side of LA. Another factor is something called regressive taxes. If the government imposes a flat $10 tax on the sale of a new video game, like the GTA game, if you earn less money, that makes up a larger percentage of your income than someone who earns a lot more. While a $10 flat tax on a video game may not be realistic, sales taxes and payroll taxes are realistic and everyone faces them. Now, for anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor, especially living in this day and age. For example, let's just say your bank account goes negative. You are charged a minimum fees, I mean overdraft fees of $25 for not having money. Can you believe this? Secondly, imagine you want to buy something, but you cannot afford to pay for that thing. And I'm talking about basic necessities up front. You will be forced to go into credit card debt. And in the long run, you are stuck with higher interest rates on that debt. If you're broke or poor, you probably cannot afford to buy a car. And if you happen to buy one that you're paying a car note on because you cannot afford to own one, your car insurance rate will be so much higher than if you own your car or than those that own their cars. Also, if you're poor, buying food in bulk is not an option because you have to have like extra money aside, extra money up front in order to buy food in bulk. Talking about healthcare, that is even out of the question. People who are poor cannot afford health care in this day and age. Most people who are poor tend to wait a longer time until their ailment gets really, really serious before they go see their doctor. They tend to self-medicate themselves because they cannot afford it. If you would have told me that $5 an hour increase in pay over the course of a few years would cost me thousands, I would have laughed at you and then probably declined the raise. You see, a few years ago when I accepted the current position I'm at now, I was kicked off my free health care from the state. The reason I had free healthcare is because I am disabled and I was able to keep health care for quite a while. But you know what? When I was kicked off of it, I was very nervous financially because it it costs a lot of extra money, especially when you have a lot of doctor's appointments and need a lot of medication. But I was like, this was the goal, Tabitha. The goal was to get off of state assistance. Now, the good deal was my kid could keep their free healthcare through the state. Their donor is supposed to be paying for health care, but he doesn't pay for healthare or child support or anything, anything. Anyway, so it's always fallen on me. So, fast forward, you know, again, I got a couple of dollar an hour raise. Eventually, I lost my healthcare. I was working, you know, I'm still working for the same company. And then J February comes around and in February they tell us what our raises are going to be and it was 75 cents. So March I start getting my 75 cents extra an hour than I was making the previous year. And we are still in March and I got a letter today telling me that my child no longer qualifies for state health insurance. So I call my work and I say hey what's the cost for my kid to be on my health insurance now? And it's, keep in mind, $7.75 an hour is what, like hundred and something, you know, a month. Well, now the premium is $200 a month extra. Plus, it doubles my max out of pocket. And now my kid, because state health insurance, you have no, you know, co-pays or anything. And now we have co-pays. We're going to have medication. My kid does take medication every month. Not only has inflation, as we know, been crazy since co started, but overall I'm making s five something more an hour than I was. And in turn, I went from zero health care costs to thousands. The reason that this is important is because, like I said, I'm a single parent. I don't live crazy above my means. I don't have high debt to income. My my life is pretty we live pretty we go on vacation once a year, but we don't live crazy. We don't live a fancy lifestyle if you want bougie lifestyle or whatever. If I would have known that a 75 raise was going to change things that drastically, I would have found a way to decline the raise. And I don't know how if that's even possible at the company. I don't know how that works, but I would have found a way to do that. And you know, my employer doesn't understand, of course. I mean, maybe they do, but I don't I don't know if they understand this story. Overall, I've made $5 more an hour and it's costing me thousands. And I remember this same story when I was in extreme poverty on 100% assistance. I would make 50 cents more an hour. Like I suddenly am a shift supervisor or something. And I would lose so much money in health or not healthcare, in food stamps or something. And at the time that was a matter of I'm eating or not eating. Do I feel like it's everybody's responsibility to pay my way? No. In fact, I work full-time. Uh, I also own a business. My child works and also helps pay for their own costs such as car insurance and stuff. So, I don't think that we owe or that we are owed anything. But I do think that there either needs to be more education out there in terms of, oh, if you take the 75 cent raise, it's going to cost you more than you were making because I'm making less now than I was 5 years ago. When you take into consideration, one, the cost of living and also medical. And I've gone on this rant for almost 4 minutes because I think it's so important for you to understand that we're not out here just taking advantage of the system. We're out here actively. Many of us are trying to just live by working hard, get taking our care of our health, doing raising great kids who are hard workers and independent. And yet, it feels like sometimes you just can't get ahead ever, no matter what you do. It's so sad. And it's just going to get worse. I need more therapy now than I ever have. And I can't even afford it. It's crazy. The only way to do this is a twoerson household and that's just not an option because I'm single, not super ready to mingle and a third job. That's a lot. So, get a better job. Yeah. Get a better job for what? At this point, why? I don't know what to do now. I don't I don't know what to do. I was going to go back to school while continuing to work full-time and continuing to be a full-time parent and continuing to run a business, but um I don't think I could mentally do all of it. I promise this is not to be offensive, but have y'all notice that we have normalized poverty? There was a guy on TikTok talking about how he doesn't like the fact that he's 50 years old and he has to have a roommate because things are so expensive. And the tonedeaf comments of people saying things such as, "Oh, well, you have to live below your means." Or, "Oh, you need to just go ahead and get an RV." Not realizing that the RVs and the tiny homes, the trailers, which were the solutions to the problems, are now also unaffordable. Just a few years ago, tiny homes started to become popular and they were priced at about 30 40,000. Currently, tiny homes start at double that amount right now. All I'm trying to say is there's a bigger problem at hand and telling people that they need to just completely deprive themselves of basic necessities such as a home. Y'all don't think that's weird. I don't know. I know you're not going to like this and you probably don't want to hear it, but as somebody who grew up actually in poverty. Um, I don't want to hear anybody say any who hasn't grown up in poverty say anything about my tax dollars do this and well my mother, sisters, brothers, cousin has a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend who has six kids $800 worth of food stamps and they're cheating the system. Oh boo. I hate that. I actually hate that so much because first off, the government has been cheating people out of everything that they got since America has started. You know what I'm saying? Especially black people and people of color. So, I don't want to hear nothing about it. You know what I'm saying? The whole welfare system, all that was actually set up to mess up the black family. Anyway, I'm not even about to get into that too much, right? But the thing that really radicalized me, I think the first time I truly felt anger, such an intense anger towards the American government and the whole system, I was 18 years old. We was on Medicaid, right? Pretty sure Medicaid is the one that old that poor people get, not old people. Medicare is for older people. I think y'all know what I mean, though. We was on Medicaid. I was on my mom's plan. 18 years old. I have autoimmune disease that is completely awful. Rheumatoid arthritis. I would not wish it on my worst enemy. The mental, physical, and emotional stress it puts on you will have you rethinking life. Okay. They're like, "We can't give you your medicine." I said, "Why not?" They said, "You're no longer insured." I said, "How? What are you talking about? I'm on my mom's Medicaid." Oh, no, no, no, At 18 years old, you get kicked off. Most insurance plans will let the child stay until what? 25, 26. Medicaid will kick you off at 18 years old. So, you're meaning to tell me people who are living in poverty, their children are getting kicked off at 18, you expect them to have a full-time job with full benefits. And also, if you're living in poverty, there's a good chance that you you're not as you're not as hip to good nutrition. You may not have as much access. have as much money to even buy those food that food. You know what I'm saying? So, you mean to tell me these people who are more prone to disease, sickness, and illness, their children are getting kicked off 18? And poverty is a trauma within itself. And trauma leads to stress, which leads to sickness and ill and and ailments and illness. So, I sat there in pain trying to figure out every which way just to get my medicine because the government said, "You're poor. We're going to kick you off seven years early. And y'all are mad about a mom getting food stamps. You're mad about your Where are your tax dollars going? When we have Los Angeles Police Department, Chicago Police Department, New York Police Department, our small militaries. That's what we're mad about. And billionaires aren't even paying taxes. And y'all are mad about a mom possibly getting over on the government. How how far she even getting over on the government? You think that trillion dollar debt is because of that single mom? Okay. Yes, we are low middle class. I'm sorry that them saving up all year. Um, no offense to the creator of this video. I really mean no offense because I'm in the same boat as you, but you are poor. You are in fact low class and so am I. uh middle class is basically non-existent for a lot of people, but the middle class that can really classify themselves as middle class are really upper middle class because the low middle class have integrated to being poor. Um I feel kind of bad for telling you that you're poor. Uh but so am I. If it makes you feel any better, we're we're in this together. Thank you. A lot of people cannot make progress financially because they are house poor and they probably don't even know it. Being house poor is when you own a home that you cannot afford. What does that look like? When you have a payment that is a very big percentage of what you make monthly and all you can afford basically is to pay the mortgage. By the time you cover all your house expenses, you are basically left with nothing. I think it's important to talk about this because people are under the impression that as long as you own a home, you're winning. And that is not the case. If you are owning a home, stress out because by the end of the month, you have nothing left. You cannot afford that. That is what we call you bought too much house. With your monthly income, you should be able to pay your mortgage, set money aside, invest, basically still have a life, right? And not feel like you're drowning and not feel like you can't breathe. The biggest, smartest way to do this is waiting to buy a house when you are ready. Now, when the pressure is when are you going to buy a house? When are you going to buy a house? Oh, everyone buys a house when they get married. Why aren't you? No, you need to buy a house when you're ready. Doing this when you're ready looks like this. You should be debtree. You should have an emergency fund and you should aim to have a really good down payment. 5, 10, 15, 20% down. And that will give you margin. That will give you breathing room. That will make sure you are doing this the right way. So don't let anyone pressure you into this. Buying a house is the biggest expense you're ever going to make. At least for most of us. Make sure you're doing this the right way. Bro, it don't even matter who having and who not. The doctors is poor, bro. The doctors is poor. I'm seeing that I never thought I'd see in my life. The doctors is in debt. The lawyers is in debt, practicing, active, making hundreds of thousands of dollars, and yet they still can't afford their bills. You know what I'm saying? So, at this point, I'm looking around like, who really got it like that? Because now my concept of money as a black man's already been destroyed. I found out rappers is poor. I thought rappers was the richest thing on the planet when I was growing up. Actors really all it really come down to manage your money right but you know I can't tell nobody that I'll be looking at minimalism a lot more like yo this might really be my way for real cuz do I really need all this like yeah I'mma get I'mma get bread regardless I'mma always get bread but I'm not going to over whoop my cuz I'm looking at the doctors I gota I gotta look at doctors and lawyers and all these people talking about they can't pay their bills nah that Crazy. It's people in the club posting money, posting up, bro. Food stamped out on the air mattress, bro, but be spending their ass on bottles. Being poor is so expensive and it is a lot cheaper to be rich. There are like a million examples that I can give, but one of the first things I think about is like all these credit card benefits. Like I paid for a flight yesterday that was like $700 and I had like $700 in flight points and the flight was basically free. Cost me nothing besides the fact that I am an avid user of my Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Now you mean other people who are going to be on that same flight and going to spend their $700 in their own hard-earned money and if it was me going through that flight I get free lounge access. I get TSA pre-check global entry. Never pay for that. that comes with the credit card. I get free hotel nights. I get upgrades. Meanwhile, poor people don't have health insurance. One wrong thing or car insurance, even insurance in general. One thing happens with your car. One thing happens with your health and suddenly you're in mountains and mountains and mountains of debt. It is so expensive to be poor. The next time you want to defend a rich person as a poor person, just remember like don't don't ever defend men. Don't ever defend rich people. Y'all know what the is so irritating? Struggling. I'ming tired of struggling. I hate this car so much. I try to stay positive. I try to be always positive, but every time I turn around, something always happening. The key is stuck in this ugly ass old ass car emission. Like I'm so sick and tired of struggling. Everybody think I got everything together and I be struggling like a mother. Like I am not rich. I got to go to work. I'm tired of struggling. I'm mad as I can't get this key off the ignition. So that means the battery is going to die. Then I'm not going to have no right to take these kids to school tomorrow. I'm not going to be able to get to work. I can't do live now because I can't get the key out of the mission. I hate my life sometimes. But you try to stay positive and like the is annoying. I was just at the grocery store and the key wouldn't come out the ignition. I'm just like I'm about to go back home. I'm just so irritated. I'm tired of struggling. I'm tired of doing everything by myself. I'm tired of being single. I'm tired of raising five kids by myself. Like when you young and dumb. I was definitely young and dumb. Young and dumb. Stupid ass car. Like I really can't get the key off the ignition. I can start the car, turn it off, and the key is still stuck. I want to break this. Like, I hate this car. And then it's so bad. Like, y'all sell cars. Y'all want us to pay a car note on old cars that break down. And then you know how many cars I went through last year because I had to get a used mother car because I didn't have a co-signer. Like I went through so many mother cars. Like my life is very very hard and mother think it's just all so gravy. But I'm blessed. But like every time I feel like I'm doing on the right path, I always got to go through this every time. Every time I get on my feet, something happened with this car. Oh my god, I'm sick of this I'm sick of struggling. I cannot wait till I can get me a brand new car off the car lot again. Like, I'm tired of using having these old cars that break down in Ohio. I'm just like, what do you do? What do you do? I'm tired. I'm so tired of doing everything by myself with no help. I'm sick and tired. And everybody always asking me for something like I got it. Like I got everything together. And I be like, man, these mother always asking me something. Don't nobody ask me is everything okay? Like I'm sick of this Like even my three oldest dad, like you got it all together. You never be like, "Hey, you need help on the bill or anything? You don't pay child support." None of my baby daddies pay child support. Yes, I work, but damn, I need help. I got to do everything by myself. I got to buy pass. I got to do by the household stuff. I got to pay my bills. I know you got bills, too, but damn, can you help? Your kids is here with me 24/7. cell phone bills, mother internet because they need internet like rent, gas and light bill high as like what the do I do? But you know what? When I go through this stuff, it's like every time I almost to the end of the toner tunnel, I feel like I'm almost right there. I go 10 steps back. I make a mistake or do something or let people in my life that I know God said keep out. Soon as I let people in my life that I know should stay go, my life go into shambles. Why do I keep doing it? I don't know. Trying to be nice, trying to be there for people, trying to listen to them. But I know for a fact that that be the enemy sending these mother back over here. And now when I get back like this, where where everybody at? Nowhere to be found. Nowhere to be found. I'm doing this by myself. My kids see me crying and I be like, "Go ahead." Trying to be strong for them. I'm justing tired. I truly feel sorry for the last lady in the video who is going through hard times at the moment. And I'm sure I know for a fact that she's not alone. The government needs to push social programs in place to assist such individuals. I'm not talking about those that are using the system. The government needs to put in place more social safety nets that considers people's economic standing and provide safer and more realistic opportunities and avenues for people to escape poverty. At the same time, we really do need to stop the excuse of merit to justify the fact that 37 million people in the US live in poverty and under the poverty line. We need to recognize that poverty is a social issue rather than an individual problem. We need to start to care about each other as Americans so that we can all thrive together. So feel free to chime in the comments on this topic. Is it expensive to be poor in America today?