Wee Willie Washout on being Broke

[LC EFA]

WilliamPitt  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)  Wed Mar-25-09 04:56 PM
Original message
Being Broke   Updated at 5:00 PM
   
Edited on Wed Mar-25-09 05:00 PM by WilliamPitt
It occured to me the other day that everyone has been writing and reporting on what is happening to the economy, why it is happening, who's to blame, etc...but I haven't seen anyone write about what it is like to have it happen to you. Thus:

Being Broke
By William Rivers Pitt

Wednesday 25 March 2009

He who knows how to be poor knows everything.

- Jules Michelet

Being broke means knowing about Coinstar machines and where the closest one is. Usually they're in the back corner of the local supermarket, right between the bank machine you can't get money from because your account is overdrawn and the counter where they sell the scratch tickets you're not quite desperate enough to try just yet.

Used to be you'd have to go to the bank and get those little brown coin sleeves. You'd have to sit at a table with the pile of change you'd been collecting in a mug or old vase and sort the pennies from the nickels from the dimes, always putting the quarters off to the side because you need those for the laundry machine or the parking meter. You'd load up the little brown sleeves with coins, toss them in a bag, and turn them in at the bank for some folding green. It was never much, and it took forever to load up the sleeves, but it was money.

With Coinstar, however, the little brown sleeves never come into play. You just have to load up a bag or a pocket with your coins and jingle your way to the grocery store. You dump the coins into the tray of the Coinstar, the change goes clinking and plinking into the maw of the machine, and a little screen counts it all up for you. While you check the little side tray to see how many buttons and Canadian coins got rejected, a little slip of paper is printed telling you how much money you just handed over. You take the slip to the service desk, and they give you the cash. It's never much, but it's money.

Being broke means not having cable television, which is going to get interesting once they do the much-ballyhooed switchover to digital. For now, the airwaves are still free, and if you can afford a television and are handy with the rabbit ears, there's always something on to fill the hours once occupied by the job that disappeared out from under you. Being broke means knowing where all the gas stations are, and which one has the cheapest regular unleaded, but being broke means leaving the car parked because you can't even afford the cheap stuff, can't afford the car, and don't have anywhere to drive now that the job's gone. There's always the bus, unless you dumped your change for the fare into the Coinstar.

Being broke means ignoring heat, gas and electricity bills for as long as possible, because those guys are always the ones who wait the longest before shutting you off. Being broke means hating and despising the mailbox, because it always has some bad news inside waiting for you, because it is the symbol of your failure to manage things. Its partner in spite is the telephone, if it still works, because a ringing phone all too often means another bill collector is reaching out for money you don't have, so you don't answer, and it rings, and rings, and rings.

Being broke means you can't pay the rent, can't pay the mortgage, can't pay the credit card bill, can't pay the student loan, can't make the car payment, can't pay tuition, can't buy the medicine, which means having to borrow, which tastes like slippery metal in your mouth. "Neither a lender nor a borrower be," said William Shakespeare, which is fine for a guy getting paid by the Queen but doesn't always work out quite that way for everyone else. Your credit is shot and you have no collateral, so no bank will touch you. You meet a friend and try to steer the conversation into whatever vein will let you broach the question without feeling humiliated, but you always do anyway. You call a parent and hang your head and wring your hands and feel hot blood crash into your face because you are so very, very ashamed. The best part, however, is when whomever you ask for help is broke, too, which leaves you embarrassed and ashamed and just as short as you'd been before you asked.

Being broke means never getting a good night's sleep. It means being afraid to close your eyes because of what you'll see waiting for you there in the darkness. If the TV gets reception, you become well-versed in the late-night programming. Being broke turns your stomach into a constant reminder of your situation, because it's a ball of angst and dread right there in the middle of you. You are never hungry when your stomach talks to you about finances, which is good because you barely have enough for a slice at the local pizza shop. It's just you and your fears in the twitching light of the television in the middle of the night because they're going to cut off the electricity and you're out of change and there are no jobs and you just can't sleep.

Being broke makes it hard to look your spouse or your parents or your children or your friends in the eye because you don't have any answers. We get look-on-the-bright-side and things-will-turn-up fed to us with mother's milk, but none of that alleviates the weight on the back of your neck that pushes your head down and robs you of sleep.

Being broke these days, however, means you're not alone. There's always a line at the Coinstar now, always a line at the counter of the music store where they buy used CDs and DVDs for pennies on the dollar. The gas station with the cheapest regular unleaded is always busy, and the check-cashing joint where you can pay overdue utility bills is filled with half the people from your neighborhood. There are always familiar faces at the unemployment office, and everyone knows exactly what's going on with you and everybody else.

Being broke is a familiar experience for most of us now. People are going broke, households are going broke, towns, cities, counties, states, nations, hemispheres are going broke, and why? Because several very old, very bad ideas are going broke, and taking the lot of us along for the ride down the chute. Being broke is among the most solitary and shattering of experiences; in a crowd of broke people, everyone always feels alone.

You're not alone.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5329439

Is it just me or has the Wee Willie Washout become more coherent in his posting style ?

malaise  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Wed Mar-25-09 05:01 PM
Response to Original message
1. And being broke is being invisible on M$Greedia
   
It's easier to pretend people aren't suffering.

Excellent post WilliamPitt.

M$Greediaâ„¢, by VRWC Labs is great software. It helps to track all the poor people one is currently oppressing and provides helpfull hints as to new groups of poor people that might be a good target for future oppression and theft.

SharonAnn  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Wed Mar-25-09 05:12 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. Coinstar charge 7-8% don't they? I only use the one at my Credit Union where
   
I don't get charged because I have an account there.

but in most public type places they charge a big percentage.

WilliamPitt  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)  Wed Mar-25-09 05:12 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. 8.9 cents on the dollar   Updated at 5:00 PM
   
Tolerable.

Nearly 9% just because you are too useless or lazy  to go into a bank and get the provided bags / rolls. Any wonder why you are poor ?

DemReadingDU  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Wed Mar-25-09 05:12 PM
Response to Original message
5. A couple years, we're all going to find out
   

What it's like to be broke.

You mean I'm going to run out of "poor people" to steal from ? Whatever shall I do ?

Warpy  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)  Wed Mar-25-09 05:14 PM
Response to Original message
9. Being broke also means
   
getting the mail after dark because you feel so much shame you really don't want to see any of your neighbors, even though they're all nice folks.

Being broke means keeping one good outfit and wearing it only long enough to apply for a job. The rest of the time you're in thrift shop stuff that was rags when they got it and two years hard use hasn't improved it. You just hope your weight doesn't change before you find a job in that one outfit.

Being broke means staying inside all the time because just a walk to the corner seems to cost money.

Being broke means going to the library on a Tuesday morning when the only other people there are homeless guys who are worse off than you are, just to catch up on the newspaper and magazines the library gets but you can't afford any more.

Being broke means getting down to that stuff in the back of the cupboard that you don't know how long ago you bought and hoping it won't poison you.

Being broke means reverting to that hairdo you thought you'd left behind in the 60s, that ponytail at the nape of your neck. You know it looks like hell, but cutting it yourself looked worse.

Being broke means getting sick and realizing you'll get better or you'll die but the one thing you won't get is help.

Worst of all, being broke means you see pity and contempt in everybody else's face even when it isn't there.

Funny that none of them have reached the conclusion that "being broke" means you are costing more than you are earning , and using it as reminder call that they need to make more money..

WilliamPitt  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)  Wed Mar-25-09 05:21 PM
Response to Reply #9
17. A friend who read an early draft of this   Updated at 5:00 PM
   
made a great point: people who are broke in this country often take upon themselves 100% of the guilt and responsibility for their situation, when all too often they are victims of any number of outside factors they cannot be blamed for.

It is a nifty bit of large-scale crowd control when millions of people blame themselves for economic factors they didn't cause and cannot control...everyone feels shame and stays quiet and blames themselves when everyone should be yelling their heads off.

If people who were broke "often take upon themselves 100% of the guilt and responsibility for their situation" then there would be little need for welfare. Responsibility clearly means something else in the Magic Pony Kingdom.

[ScubaGuy]

can't buy the medicine, which means having to borrow, which tastes like slippery metal in your mouth

Huh?  Will are you having flashbacks to sucking on a metal vibrator?

[Odin's Hand]

Most banks have a free coin-changer located on their premises that grants you a reciept for coins deposited that you can exchange for paper bills or deposit into an account.

DUmbass, drunk brick-target....

[Chris_]

DemReadingDU  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Wed Mar-25-09 05:12 PM
Response to Original message
5. A couple years, we're all going to find out
   

What it's like to be broke.

I agree with this DUmmie. The way 0 and the other dims are sailing the ship we are all apt to find out what "broke" feels like.

[Carl]

I know what it is like being broke in the early to mid 80s as the farm here finally collapsed.
It was early April in 1985 I made the decision to go a different path and while not easy or quick it worked.
I have been employed non-stop since then and while not rich by any measure I am no longer broke.

I wonder if very many of these cretins knows what it means in life...I doubt it as they post away on their Internet.

[franksolich]

Now, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

What's this about the primitives being broke?

I thought 0bumble was going to take care of all of that.

After 64 days, 0bumble hasn't taken care of it?

The 0bumbleites and 0bumbleite primitives promised us.

Damn.

[miskie]

well, Willy can always get himself some Two-Buck-Chuck, Boones, or MD2020 to wash away his blues. It doesnt matter how poor one is, one can always afford Wine-O wines.

[The Village Idiot]

Broke

Hanging out with the kids playing board games. How you don't miss not having cable.

Noticing how quiet things are without all the gadgets being turned on.

How much you would rather be with the family that sticks by you in the hard times than anyone else in the world.

Watching the kids giggle as they try to count the change your going to use to get that bread and juice at the dollar store.

Time to contemplate Gods plan while you wait for sleep to come.

You might not know where you will be able to live next month or whether the power might be turned off before you cash that lousy paycheck, but you know your going to keep going...

.. what else is there to do? become a DUmmie?

[The Village Idiot]

but is he broke??

did the trust fund go kaput? did mama taste the metal?

[franksolich]

but is he broke??

did the trust fund go kaput? did mama taste the metal?

No, the Bostonian Drunkard's not broke, in the sense of being absolutely penniless.

One's sure the trust fund's doing okay.

But because a more-mature person is in charge of the trust fund, doling out an "allowance" to the Bostonian Drunkard, probably the Bostonian Drunkard overspent for this month, and is broke the final six days, or something.

[The Village Idiot]

No, the Bostonian Drunkard's not broke, in the sense of being absolutely penniless.

One's sure the trust fund's doing okay.

But because a more-mature person is in charge of the trust fund, doling out an "allowance" to the Bostonian Drunkard, probably the Bostonian Drunkard overspent for this month, and is broke the final six days, or something.

well if it ever really goes broke... his real and final opus should be awesome and probably novella legnth

[DixieBelle]

Ah, ran out of money before he ran out of month again I see.

[franksolich]

well if it ever really goes broke... his real and final opus should be awesome and probably novella legnth.

It hasn't been done for a while, but in years past, one could always tell when the Bostonian Drunkard had had an argument with dear old dad (not the source of the trust fund; that's from the maternal side of the family) about money.

Whenever dear old dad told the Bostonian Drunkard "no," the Bostonian Drunkard would post something castigating George Bush.

The primitives of course are notorious for mis-directing their anger and rage and Hate, in this case the Bostonian Drunkard substituting George Bush for dear old dad.

[Vagabond]

One of my uncles told me a little about his life as a young man.  He lived in a four room house, not counting the outhouse, they had a wood stove for heat, and fourteen souls all lived and slept there.  School was six miles away, and it had to be walked.  Sometimes they would run short of flour, and their neighbour would loan it to them, sometimes their neighbor borrowed flour from them.  His Dad studied his own tractor until he was good enough to repair his neighbor's tractors, then how they would keep things running, though there was no money to buy actual replacement parts.  The big present at Christmas was a new pair of shoes, and they still didn't wear them except when they had to.

I don't think Wee Willie has gotten to that point yet.  Though his writing does improve when he sobers up.

[The Village Idiot]

I don't think Wee Willie has gotten to that point yet.  Though his writing does improve when he sobers up.

Maybe he just dictated and his future wife wrote and edited it for him?? Is he still planning to get married?

[mamacags]

Maybe he just dictated and his future wife wrote and edited it for him?? Is he still planning to get married?

He is probably just waiting until she gets out of 8th grade before they marry.

[happy1ga]

Being broke is counting pennies for your child's lunch money. However, I still remember, (I just turned 43), the time when one didn't announce to the world you were broke, as this was an embarassment, and considered YOUR failure, not the government, George Bush, the black helo people, etc. People tried to do the best they could, and were stoic. This is how I was raised. I have sat in the bathtub, crying, hiding from bill collectors at the door, but I never whined about it, it just was. I made a mistake, made a bad marriage, and lived with it, until I couldn't anymore safely, and then just sucked it up. Personally, I think it was character building for me, I can't speak for others.
 I was just reading that second post here, can someone please tell me how walking to the corner costs money, and being poor means you have to stay inside? I can't figure that one out, unless it means there is an ice cream shop down at the corner.

[Chris_]

Being broke is counting pennies for your child's lunch money. However, I still remember, (I just turned 43), the time when one didn't announce to the world you were broke, as this was an embarassment, and considered YOUR failure, not the government, George Bush, the black helo people, etc. People tried to do the best they could, and were stoic. This is how I was raised. I have sat in the bathtub, crying, hiding from bill collectors at the door, but I never whined about it, it just was. I made a mistake, made a bad marriage, and lived with it, until I couldn't anymore safely, and then just sucked it up. Personally, I think it was character building for me, I can't speak for others.
 I was just reading that second post here, can someone please tell me how walking to the corner costs money, and being poor means you have to stay inside? I can't figure that one out, unless it means there is an ice cream shop down at the corner.

I believe hookers hang out on street corners so if a person was walking to the corner to get "serviced" it could cost money.

[MrsSmith]

When I was broke...going to college with 3 kids...I pinched every penny at least twice, and saved them all carefully.  When I rolled them, it was to go to the pharmacy for antibiotics for child #3, who had frequent ear infections.  (My doctor was very nice about letting me charge the office visit until the first of the month.)

I can flat guarantee I would have NEVER paid 9% of my pennies to have them rolled.  Someone who pays a fee like this is quite obviously NOT broke.   

[NHSparky]

There's still a stigma attached not to being broke, but by being there because you spent your money on useless bullshit rather than necessities.

At least there is in my realm.

[happy1ga]

I feel sorry for any hooker who had to service one of these nuts. Sheesh. Seriously, being really poor is like what Mrs. Smith said. You don't waste a single penny. You know good and well they can get food stamps, even with a trust fund, you can obfuscate around that lil problem. Try eating dried beans and getting 10 lb bags of potatoes, and 5 lbs of flour, and make meals the way so many did during the Depression. I was raised with that kind of mentality, and I know I can go back to doing w/o everything except the bare necessaties tomorrow. These people just don't understand what the basics are. Movies, pizzas eating out? Nope.
 Oh well, "Home, James, we are in a hurry to eat on our Meatlover's pizza, so step on it, asshat! Don't you realize we're not paying you?"