Something something avocado toast

The phone that you use every day, that is required to function in daily society, and is the NUMBER ONE priority when you're homeless, aside from maybe obtaining legal documentation?

That cell phone?

OMG, would people get off the friggin cell phone thing already. People buy all kinds of things they can't afford. Money management would help with that. That was my only point. But if we HAVE to talk cell phones then fine. High end phones are over $1k. I just bought one for $200. To a person with little money, yeah cell phones too.

As you type this, people in poverty who had their state-sponsored cheap telephones so they could get callbacks for work and take care of their families, are getting notified that the program has been canceled and they have to now somehow pay for their own phones on top of every other fee and expense that increases when you're poor.

It's also kind of hard to not pay for your car when you live in it. Speaking from experience.

That's truly terrible but I don't know what that has to do with money management, which is the only point I'm trying to make. I agree on the rest of all of this.
- I don’t know what that has to do with money management,
  That's because I don't think you actually understand the conversation. We're talking about the difficulty of poverty, you're thinking "money management" and that REEKS of someone who's never actually been poor. You do not get it. You should be ASKING QUESTIONS and not dispensing life-advice about money to people who have been through actual hardships you clown.

That argument is stupid, because usually people need a reason to save for. Now rent is so high that people can barely save, and houses are so expensive that even if they do and get a credit with their staggering student debt, they'll never be able to afford it.

So what do people do? they just enjoy the small things, because they know they'll never have the big ones.

It's not stupid, you've just stupidly misinterpreted it.
I believe you've mistakenly interpreted it to mean that I disagree with the premise that people have been priced out of the things we've come to believe are the standard of living now. That's not what I was objecting to.
My point is that money should ALWAYS be managed. If you have no money, then, well I guess it manages itself. But if you have very little money, you shouldn't be buying s $60k car you can't afford. You buy a $3k car you can. Saying, I can't afford a house so I'm going to go into massive amounts of debt to buy a car to make up for it, is the REASON you need to manage money.
- No, your take is very stupid
  you just avocado toast even harder. Now you not only over generalized people, and willfully ignore the cause of the problem.
  You then turn items that are essential to life in society into irresponsible luxuries. If you can’t afford to rent there is no such thing as an affordable phone/car.
  The point of the post is that it’s not merely impulsive spending and you went, “nah, it is just that”
  
  A $60k car and a $1600 cell phone are NOT essential for life and I didn't just "nah, it is just that," the argument. You're just having reading comprehension problems.
  Let's drop to your level. Are you stupid enough to believe that people don't buy things they can't afford? If you only have even $10 to your name and you need food, you go to the most economical grocery store you can get to and maximize your purchases. You don't walk into Starbucks and order a latte. The OP implied that because there is as larger economic problem at hand, money management isn't an issue. They are ALWAYS both an issue.
  And yes I understand that the problem is that people have to manage $10 now instead of $1000. It was not my intention to minimalize that.
  
  You invent a scenario, and applied that to all people who struggle then? Context be dammed? Damn, sounds like a bad take.
  The OP context is “older generations say that things are easy, when they had it easy. But here is an example that shows that things are not equal by a long shot.
  Then you show up with a ‘if people would just stop eating avocado toast, they would have it just as easy’ ignoring the message in the OP and the systemic issues that not only make owning both your stated items a necessary component of life, but makes everything much more expensive.
  A stupid take. Do struggling people own $1300 phones or expensive cars? Maybe there are some but not a lot. You fucking just dammed everyone struggling over just the possibility, inventing a character flaw on an entire class of people.
  A very, very stupid take.
  
  People who come into posts about struggles of poverty preaching "money management" are people who have never had to actually survive a day in their life and have always had an allowance or income they could depend on. I appreciate you mercilessly calling this user's BS out.
- The Ratio says it's actually pretty stupid. The percentage of people who can't afford a home purely because they bought a $60k car is going to be absolutely minuscule, but it's a great dog whistle for trying to lay the blame at the feet of personal responsibility.
  
  It's a whole lot more than you think.
  
  It's a whole lot less than you think.
  
  No, it's not. It's not measured in the decimals of percentages, so it's significant.
- Your take only gets stupider the more you try to explain it.
  My point is that money should ALWAYS be managed.
  Is that what you think people are talking about in here? money management?
  You are truly too dense for any of this. Fortunately for you, you probably have never been touched by actual hardship and I hope that continues for you. The rest of us have had to deal with the very worst our nation can throw at us.
  
  Ok. Troll go ahead and keep believing what you want. You will always be right.
  
  Troll
  You don't even know how words work huh?
  A troll is someone who doesn't believe what they say they're just trying to make you mad.
  I believe STRONGLY that you're too dense/young for this conversation and I WHOLHEARTEDLY believe that you should back out of this topic and learn more about other humans and how civics works and a host of other broad topics so you can be a better person and not get your ass kicked someday for saying some offensive shit around people who have lived a lot more than you.
  This isn't trolling, it's actual advice, you need to get your head on better. Nobody cares about your stupid "life philosophies" about money. Put that shit on a wooden carved sign hanging over the kitchen sink, but out here in the real world, it's far more complicated and people face a lot more problems than your stupid phrases and 2-dimensional witticisms. Lose literally fucking everything to some medical bills then get back to me, let me know how fair the system is then.
- There is no such thing as a $3k car, those days are gone. If it's going to be something that is expected to start and drive every day without major repairs that are overdue, you need to spend closer to $10k.
  I know this because I recently bought my sons some used cars. Used 2006 Volvo was $6k in about as good of condition it could be for the age and miles. Still needed a bunch of little things that quickly added up. New tires ($800), PCV breather system ($120 did myself), new ignition coils ($200, did myself), brakes ($80, did myself), etc. If I wasn't doing my own work, it would have been 3x the cost.
  I also bought a 2013, nearly identical car to the 06. It needs far less, put tires on it, still has an evaporative emissions leak causing a check engine light. Not going to fix that.
  
  I buy $1k cars sometimes, but they usually don't run. A $3k car will be usable if you know how to turn wrenches, have space to work, and own multiple other cars for when it breaks down.
  $10k barely buys a reliable car in most markets these days.
  
  There is no such thing as a $3k car,
  Yes there is ....
  My 2009 honda fit cost me 5k 3 years ago and has needed no repairs at all... You can go lower pretty easily...
  
  Used car markets are highly localized markets and depending on demand in the area can fluctuate wildly, just because you got a steal on a 14 year old car 3 years ago doesn't mean other people aren't struggling to find an affordable used car now.
- The Sam Vimes theory of socioeconomic unfairness, often called simply the boots theory: "The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. ... A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. ... But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet."
  
  I can't make this sink into the minds of privileged people who never lost everything in their lives due to medical disasters from not being able to afford insurance, or having their house suddenly literally collapse one day while you're at work because you couldn't afford to get the pipes replaced.

Nice strawman you got there, goes well with all the avocado toast I buy instead of using it for a mortgage payment.

No you see, that serious toothache you have because you can't afford to get to a dentist because you haven't been able to afford dental insurance since 2010 is just a matter of managing your money you stupid poor. Just ignore the pain and inability to eat and manage your money!
Honestly, if you had better money management you would have gotten that taken care of immediately and then spent the additional $4000 for implants so you have a great smile for your job interviews and not get passed up because there are also 300 younger, more attractive people willing to work for less also applying for the same position.
MONEY MANAGEMENT!

The highest priced iPhone, all max specs, is $1600.

If you get a new one every year, and trade in the previous year's, you'll probably get around $600 trade in value. So we're talking $1000/year for the highest priced phone.

On a monthly basis, we're talking $83/month. That's like a rounding error on rent, utilities, and food, much less transportation and health care.

And, more realistically, people are buying $800 phones once every 2 years, maybe seeing something like a $600 net expense spread over 24 months, for $25/month.

Phones are like the one thing that are cheaper in 2025 than in 1985.

Hell yeah, grind away for basic necessities. Bet you're a dream to talk to at parties.