Duffbert's Random Musings

1 - You mean you don't have my site memorized? Dang, man, I'm crushed! And to think of all the hours I've spent cataloguing your reviews into a pan-dimensional virtually-indexed data cube (written in MS Access, natch)...

*snicker*

Scalzi writes mostly SciFi, so it's not entirely your usual area (does anyone who reads as much as you do HAVE a "usual area"? :P), but it's pretty well done and he's got an interesting mind.

2 - OK... You posted this over a year ago, so I don't feel bad for not remembering your post. :)

Never read any of his stuff... I'll have to look it up. And I love the grocery store comment...

3 - I've been poor, and I've been quite the opposite, and anybody who says it doesn't make any difference either hasn't been both or isn't telling the truth.

4 - Well... *that* was strange. The post was there, but didn't get rendered to the HTML. Fixed now.

And you do have the positive take on it. :)

5 - @5 - Ben, I agree. I've been very lucky, but both of my parents grew up close to (and occasionally below) the poverty line. My mom always says, "anyone who says money can't buy happiness has never been dirt poor." Of course money can't really buy happiness, but it can allow you to be miserable from the comfort of your well-heated home.

6 - Yeah, great essay Mr Scalzi wrote (he's not a bad writer in general - have you read any of his books?). I blogged it way back here:

http://captainoblivious.com/rob_mcdonagh/home.nsf/d6plinks/ADOZ-6FXT89

It's very appropriate for this season. I like the comments in Scalzi's original thread, too. Probably my favorites, to repeat myself:

Being poor is having the grocery store checker give you dirty looks and make comments to the next customer about "my tax dollars being wasted" when you use food stamps to buy a day-old cake on sale and a package of birthday candles for your child.

Being poor is being overwhelmingly grateful that the next person in line says to the checker, "I can't think of a better use for my tax dollars than to pay for a poor child to have a birthday, you heartless prick."

7 - While it does touch the heart, it pales in comparison to others' poverty. When I was young, I grew up 'American poor' in a single parent home where we couldn't afford a 1/16 of the stuff I buy my kids today, that said in comparison to the vast portion of the world, I had it great! How lucky I was born to be 'American poor!'

Consider that having a car to live in would be a luxury to the vast majority of the world's poor.

$8/hour a good deal? It would be the Ritz if you are living on $1 a day (or less.)

Box of Raison Bran is a whole lot better then scraps pulled from the trash just dropped off in the dump where you live.

Having a bathtub (even one you have to emtpy into a toilet) is far better than batheing downstream from the cow's drinking/relief spot.

Goodwill underwear are great compared to nothing.

Just remember that your perspective of poverty maybe a lifestyle another can only dream about.

8 - ... means never having to say "I'll get that" when the check comes around at dinner.

Is this supposed to be a fill in the blank?

9 - @Andy: Right you are. Scalzi made it clear on his site that he was speaking only about "American poverty" and not comparing it to poverty in the wider world. There's no question that wealthy societies like the US and Europe have progressed to the point where our poor would be considered rich in some other parts of the world.

The psychological and emotional issues that come with being poor are relative to the society in which we live, though, and that is ultimately the point of the essay.