{ "archive_path": "archive/1763186283.539311", "base_url": "blog.ctms.me/posts/2025-11-14-being-poor-or-being-broke", "basename": "", "bookmarked_date": "2025-11-15 05:58", "canonical": { "archive_org_path": "https://web.archive.org/web/blog.ctms.me/posts/2025-11-14-being-poor-or-being-broke", "dom_path": "output.html", "favicon_path": "favicon.ico", "git_path": "git/", "google_favicon_path": "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=blog.ctms.me", "headers_path": "headers.json", "htmltotext_path": "htmltotext.txt", "index_path": "index.html", "media_path": "media/", "mercury_path": "mercury/content.html", "pdf_path": "output.pdf", "readability_path": "readability/content.html", "screenshot_path": "screenshot.png", "singlefile_path": "singlefile.html", "warc_path": "warc/", "wget_path": null }, "domain": "blog.ctms.me", "downloaded_at": "2025-11-15T05:58:08.149183+00:00", "downloaded_datestr": "2025-11-15 05:58", "extension": "", "hash": "V3ST1T2GQJYV10M83BPS", "history": { "archive_org": [ { "cmd": [ "/usr/bin/curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--proxy", "socks5://tor-socks-proxy:9150", "--head", "--max-time", "60", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/128.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/{VERSION} (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/)", "https://web.archive.org/save/https://blog.ctms.me/posts/2025-11-14-being-poor-or-being-broke/" ], "cmd_version": "8.10.1", "end_ts": "2025-11-15T05:58:49.481754+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "https://web.archive.org/web/20251115045410/https://blog.ctms.me/posts/2025-11-14-being-poor-or-being-broke/", "pwd": "/data/archive/1763186283.539311", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2025-11-15T05:58:40.873729+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "dom": [ { "cmd": [ "/usr/bin/chromium-browser", "--proxy-server=socks5://tor-socks-proxy:9150", "--disable-features=DarkMode", "--run-all-compositor-stages-before-draw", "--hide-scrollbars", "--autoplay-policy=no-user-gesture-required", "--no-first-run", "--use-fake-ui-for-media-stream", "--use-fake-device-for-media-stream", "--simulate-outdated-no-au='Tue, 31 Dec 2099 23:59:59 GMT'", "--headless=new", "--no-sandbox", "--no-zygote", "--disable-dev-shm-usage", "--disable-software-rasterizer", "--disable-sync", "--window-size=1440,2000", "--user-agent=Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/128.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/{VERSION} (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/)", "--user-data-dir=/data/personas/Default/chrome_profile", "--profile-directory=Default", "--dump-dom", "https://blog.ctms.me/posts/2025-11-14-being-poor-or-being-broke/" ], "cmd_version": "131.0.6778", "end_ts": "2025-11-15T05:58:23.433188+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "output.html", "pwd": "/data/archive/1763186283.539311", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2025-11-15T05:58:16.089665+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "favicon": [ { "cmd": [ "/usr/bin/curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--proxy", "socks5://tor-socks-proxy:9150", "--max-time", "60", "--output", "favicon.ico", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/128.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/{VERSION} (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/)", "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=blog.ctms.me" ], "cmd_version": "8.10.1", "end_ts": "2025-11-15T05:58:11.630393+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "favicon.ico", "pwd": "/data/archive/1763186283.539311", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2025-11-15T05:58:08.486048+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "git": [], "headers": [ { "cmd": [ "/usr/bin/curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--proxy", "socks5://tor-socks-proxy:9150", "--head", "--max-time", "60", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/128.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/{VERSION} (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/)", "https://blog.ctms.me/posts/2025-11-14-being-poor-or-being-broke/" ], "cmd_version": "8.10.1", "end_ts": "2025-11-15T05:58:11.785458+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "headers.json", "pwd": "/data/archive/1763186283.539311", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2025-11-15T05:58:11.649952+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "htmltotext": [ { "cmd": [ "(internal) archivebox.extractors.htmltotext", "./{singlefile,dom}.html" ], "cmd_version": "0.8.5rc51", "end_ts": "2025-11-15T05:58:34.299237+00:00", "index_texts": [ "You misunderstand what it means to be poor - Dom Corriveau (https://blog.ctms.me/css/fonts.2c2227b81b1970a03e760aa2e6121cd01f87c88586803cbb282aa224720a765f.css) (https://blog.ctms.me/css/main.5cebd7d4fb2b97856af8d32a6def16164fcf7d844e98e236fcb3559655020373.css) (https://blog.ctms.me/css/dark.d22e2a2879d933a4b781535fc4c4c716e9f9d35ea4986dd0cbabda82effc4bdd.css) (https://blog.ctms.me/) Dom Corriveau (/about) About (https://feed.ctms.me) Bookmarks (/index.xml) RSS (/uses/) Uses (/wants/) Wants (https://cdn.pride.codes/css/bar_body.css) You misunderstand what it means to be poor Posted on Nov 14, 2025 The more I speak about being poor, the more I realize how fundamentally other folks misunderstand what it means to be poor versus being broke. The advice folks will give comes from a good place. However, I would like to give some examples to help everyone understand most advice from non-poor folks isn\u2019t helpful. Everyone has experienced being broke. Being broke sucks. You are watching every dollar spent, finding ways to trim or make things stretch until the next payday. The difference is when you are broke you have some money . You can afford to put gas in your car, but not enough to do that repair. Money is tight, but you can get the basics at the grocery store. You can\u2019t afford to go to the movies, but will stay home and watch what\u2019s new on Netflix. When you are poor that next payday brings no relief. It is like an endless runner game. No matter how fast you run or how high you jump you can never see the finish line. No matter how tired you are the ground keeps moving. There is no room for errors as the punishment for mistakes is astronomical. When you hit an obstacle you don\u2019t restart from the last checkpoint, you go back to the beginning. There is this mindset from folks that poor people must not be smart. I mean, you\u2019re smart and you\u2019re not poor! The problem must be a skill issue! Learn the skills to do it yourself and you\u2019ll be able to pull yourself up. The other mindset is poor people are lazy. Quit complaining and do it yourself! Just get a better job! Get a second job! There\u2019s money out there, you just have to go get it. The last is these folks think they understand what it is like to be poor. Hey, I was a broke college student and I get being poor! I had a rough patch, it will pass. Let\u2019s start at the top. I have a van that is falling apart. It needs a lot of work that we cannot afford to do. In the mindset that poor people are unskilled, it appears that I should watch some YouTube videos, get the parts, and do it myself. The misunderstanding is that being poor means you have tons and tons of skills. You have to fix everything yourself. There is never, I mean never, a time you can pay someone to fix it for you. In this example folks think, \u201cIf the repair at the shop costs $1,000, but the parts cost $300, you can save a lot of money doing it yourself.\u201d You are absolutely correct. Yet, I still need to be able to afford the $300 in parts. Do you see the misunderstanding? I can\u2019t make $300 appear out of thin air. I have the skills, I\u2019ve had to fix all my cars myself. I\u2019ve done complete engine rebuilds, I\u2019ve replaced transmissions, I do all my own regular maintenance. The problem isn\u2019t skills, its money . When you are broke, spending $300 instead of $1,000 sounds like a win because you can\u2019t afford the $1,000. When you\u2019re poor $300 might as well be $1,000 or $10,000, you will never afford it. This is not a matter of time, either. I can\u2019t put aside money each month and then get it. There is never money to put aside. I can\u2019t put it on the credit card as I know I will never be able to pay it. I\u2019ll just have this $300 debt looming over me, increasing with interest every month, mocking how much of a loser I am. The second mindset: Being lazy. How do I have the time to work multiple jobs when I\u2019m doing all this extra work? How do I have the time when in my extra time I\u2019m fixing cars, appliances, the roof, and cooking every meal from scratch? Should I work a second job and never see my wife? My kids? Should I never have any personal time? Should my entire life revolve around money? Should I kill myself for capitalism? Folks who say things like this have only ever experienced being broke. It is a temporary situation and a few months of extra income will solve the problem. Being poor is not missing $1,000 or $10,000 in the short term. It\u2019s missing $40,000 a year, every year, forever. There is no short term relief. This isn\u2019t a rough patch. It is The Pit in The Dark Knight Rises. \u201cThere\u2019s a reason why this prison is the worst hell on earth\u2026 Hope. Every man who has rotted here over the centuries has looked up to the light and imagined climbing to freedom. So easy\u2026 So simple\u2026 And like shipwrecked men turning to sea water from uncontrollable thirst, many have died trying. I learned here that there can be no true despair without hope.\u201d Yes, it is possible to escape. Hell, two people have done it! Why can\u2019t you do it! But you are completely ignoring how many people have fallen to their death trying. All of the general guidance to escape being poor is actually advice for getting through being broke. Cancel Netflix Make food at home Stop going to Starbucks Fix it yourself Don\u2019t upgrade your phone These are all things that will help you temporarily . It will help you get through a short period of being broke. Or it will help you get your spending under control. You have enough money, you just don\u2019t spend it wisely. Being poor is you already did all those things. You cancelled all your streaming services years ago. You make all your food from scratch all the time. You never go to fucking Starbucks. You fix everything yourself. You already stretch everything to the limit. That is how you have to live every day of your life, for eternity, with no relief in sight. Last example and is pertinent to our times in the US. A lot of poor folks are having to stand in line for hours and hours to get food at a food bank due to goverment ineptitude. The advice to simply cook at home doesn\u2019t fix that there isn\u2019t any food at home. Do you honestly think people standing in line at a food bank could fix their situation if they stopped getting DoorDash? Going to Starbucks? Fuck off. They weren\u2019t doing that already. How are they to get another job or put in extra hours if they have to stand in line for 3 hours to get food? Should they go without food until they get that job and the paycheck? You need to step aside and think about the differences between being broke and being poor. - - - - - Thank you for reading! If you would like to comment on this post you can start a conversation on the Fediverse. Message me on Mastodon at (https://masto.ctms.me/@cinimodev) @cinimodev@masto.ctms.me . Or, you may email me at (mailto:blog.discourse904@8alias.com) blog.discourse904@8alias.com . This is an intentionally masked email address that will be forwarded to the correct inbox. (/tags/personal) personal (/tags/finance) finance (https://github.com/cinimodev) (GitHub) (https://masto.ctms.me/@cinimodev) (Mastodon) (https://www.youtube.com/dominiccorriveau) (YouTube) (https://blog.ctms.me/index.xml) (RSS) 2025 \u00a9 Dom Corriveau | (https://www.nevermonetize.com/) Never Monetize | (/ai-usage) A.I. policy " ], "output": "htmltotext.txt", "pwd": "/data/archive/1763186283.539311", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2025-11-15T05:58:34.288711+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "media": [ { "cmd": [ "/usr/local/bin/yt-dlp", "--restrict-filenames", "--trim-filenames", "128", "--write-description", "--write-info-json", "--write-annotations", "--write-thumbnail", "--no-call-home", "--write-sub", "--write-auto-subs", "--convert-subs=srt", "--yes-playlist", "--continue", "--no-abort-on-error", "--ignore-errors", "--geo-bypass", "--add-metadata", "--format=(bv*+ba/b)[filesize<=750m][filesize_approx<=?750m]/(bv*+ba/b)", "--skip-download", "--cache-dir=/data/yt-dlp-cache/", "--cookies=/data/yt-dlp-cache/cookies.txt", "--proxy=socks5://tor-socks-proxy:9150", "--no-playlist", "https://blog.ctms.me/posts/2025-11-14-being-poor-or-being-broke/" ], "cmd_version": "2024.10.7", "end_ts": "2025-11-15T05:58:40.795407+00:00", "index_texts": [], "output": "media/", "pwd": "/data/archive/1763186283.539311", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2025-11-15T05:58:35.898963+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "mercury": [ { "cmd": [ "/home/archivebox/.npm/bin/postlight-parser", "https://blog.ctms.me/posts/2025-11-14-being-poor-or-being-broke/" ], "cmd_version": "2.2.3", "end_ts": "2025-11-15T05:58:34.258822+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "mercury/", "pwd": "/data/archive/1763186283.539311", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2025-11-15T05:58:32.252013+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "pdf": [], "readability": [ { "cmd": [ "/home/archivebox/.npm/bin/readability-extractor", "/tmp/tmp20o0z_1g", "https://blog.ctms.me/posts/2025-11-14-being-poor-or-being-broke/" ], "cmd_version": "0.0.11", "end_ts": "2025-11-15T05:58:25.655820+00:00", "index_texts": [ "The more I speak about being poor, the more I realize how fundamentally other folks misunderstand what it means to be poor versus being broke. The advice folks will give comes from a good place. However, I would like to give some examples to help everyone understand most advice from non-poor folks isn\u2019t helpful.\nEveryone has experienced being broke. Being broke sucks. You are watching every dollar spent, finding ways to trim or make things stretch until the next payday. The difference is when you are broke you have some money. You can afford to put gas in your car, but not enough to do that repair. Money is tight, but you can get the basics at the grocery store. You can\u2019t afford to go to the movies, but will stay home and watch what\u2019s new on Netflix.\nWhen you are poor that next payday brings no relief. It is like an endless runner game. No matter how fast you run or how high you jump you can never see the finish line. No matter how tired you are the ground keeps moving. There is no room for errors as the punishment for mistakes is astronomical. When you hit an obstacle you don\u2019t restart from the last checkpoint, you go back to the beginning.\nThere is this mindset from folks that poor people must not be smart. I mean, you\u2019re smart and you\u2019re not poor! The problem must be a skill issue! Learn the skills to do it yourself and you\u2019ll be able to pull yourself up.\nThe other mindset is poor people are lazy. Quit complaining and do it yourself! Just get a better job! Get a second job! There\u2019s money out there, you just have to go get it.\nThe last is these folks think they understand what it is like to be poor. Hey, I was a broke college student and I get being poor! I had a rough patch, it will pass.\nLet\u2019s start at the top.\nI have a van that is falling apart. It needs a lot of work that we cannot afford to do. In the mindset that poor people are unskilled, it appears that I should watch some YouTube videos, get the parts, and do it myself. The misunderstanding is that being poor means you have tons and tons of skills. You have to fix everything yourself. There is never, I mean never, a time you can pay someone to fix it for you.\nIn this example folks think, \u201cIf the repair at the shop costs $1,000, but the parts cost $300, you can save a lot of money doing it yourself.\u201d You are absolutely correct. Yet, I still need to be able to afford the $300 in parts.\nDo you see the misunderstanding? I can\u2019t make $300 appear out of thin air. I have the skills, I\u2019ve had to fix all my cars myself. I\u2019ve done complete engine rebuilds, I\u2019ve replaced transmissions, I do all my own regular maintenance. The problem isn\u2019t skills, its money. When you are broke, spending $300 instead of $1,000 sounds like a win because you can\u2019t afford the $1,000. When you\u2019re poor $300 might as well be $1,000 or $10,000, you will never afford it.\nThis is not a matter of time, either. I can\u2019t put aside money each month and then get it. There is never money to put aside. I can\u2019t put it on the credit card as I know I will never be able to pay it. I\u2019ll just have this $300 debt looming over me, increasing with interest every month, mocking how much of a loser I am.\nThe second mindset: Being lazy.\nHow do I have the time to work multiple jobs when I\u2019m doing all this extra work? How do I have the time when in my extra time I\u2019m fixing cars, appliances, the roof, and cooking every meal from scratch?\nShould I work a second job and never see my wife? My kids? Should I never have any personal time? Should my entire life revolve around money? Should I kill myself for capitalism?\nFolks who say things like this have only ever experienced being broke. It is a temporary situation and a few months of extra income will solve the problem. Being poor is not missing $1,000 or $10,000 in the short term. It\u2019s missing $40,000 a year, every year, forever. There is no short term relief. This isn\u2019t a rough patch. It is The Pit in The Dark Knight Rises.\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s a reason why this prison is the worst hell on earth\u2026 Hope. Every man who has rotted here over the centuries has looked up to the light and imagined climbing to freedom. So easy\u2026 So simple\u2026 And like shipwrecked men turning to sea water from uncontrollable thirst, many have died trying. I learned here that there can be no true despair without hope.\u201d\nYes, it is possible to escape. Hell, two people have done it! Why can\u2019t you do it! But you are completely ignoring how many people have fallen to their death trying.\nAll of the general guidance to escape being poor is actually advice for getting through being broke.\n\nCancel Netflix\nMake food at home\nStop going to Starbucks\nFix it yourself\nDon\u2019t upgrade your phone\n\nThese are all things that will help you temporarily. It will help you get through a short period of being broke. Or it will help you get your spending under control. You have enough money, you just don\u2019t spend it wisely.\nBeing poor is you already did all those things. You cancelled all your streaming services years ago. You make all your food from scratch all the time. You never go to fucking Starbucks. You fix everything yourself. You already stretch everything to the limit. That is how you have to live every day of your life, for eternity, with no relief in sight.\nLast example and is pertinent to our times in the US. A lot of poor folks are having to stand in line for hours and hours to get food at a food bank due to goverment ineptitude. The advice to simply cook at home doesn\u2019t fix that there isn\u2019t any food at home.\nDo you honestly think people standing in line at a food bank could fix their situation if they stopped getting DoorDash? Going to Starbucks? Fuck off. They weren\u2019t doing that already.\nHow are they to get another job or put in extra hours if they have to stand in line for 3 hours to get food? Should they go without food until they get that job and the paycheck?\nYou need to step aside and think about the differences between being broke and being poor.\n\n \n - - - - -\n \n \n Thank you for reading! If you would like to comment on this post you can start a conversation on the Fediverse. Message me on Mastodon at @cinimodev@masto.ctms.me. Or, you may email me at blog.discourse904@8alias.com. This is an intentionally masked email address that will be forwarded to the correct inbox." ], "output": "readability/", "pwd": "/data/archive/1763186283.539311", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2025-11-15T05:58:24.349518+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "screenshot": [], "singlefile": [], "title": [ { "cmd": [ "/usr/bin/curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--proxy", "socks5://tor-socks-proxy:9150", "--max-time", "60", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/128.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/{VERSION} (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/)", "https://blog.ctms.me/posts/2025-11-14-being-poor-or-being-broke/" ], "cmd_version": "8.10.1", "end_ts": "2025-11-15T05:58:23.518836+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "You misunderstand what it means to be poor - Dom Corriveau", "pwd": "/data/archive/1763186283.539311", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2025-11-15T05:58:23.498848+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "wget": [] }, "icons": null, "is_archived": true, "is_static": false, "latest": { "archive_org": "https://web.archive.org/web/20251115045410/https://blog.ctms.me/posts/2025-11-14-being-poor-or-being-broke/", "dom": "output.html", "favicon": "favicon.ico", "git": null, "media": "media/", "pdf": null, "screenshot": null, "singlefile": null, "title": "You misunderstand what it means to be poor - Dom Corriveau", "warc": null, "wget": null }, "link_dir": "/data/archive/1763186283.539311", "newest_archive_date": "2025-11-15T05:58:40.873729+00:00", "num_failures": 0, "num_outputs": 9, "oldest_archive_date": "2025-11-15T05:58:08.486048+00:00", "path": "/posts/2025-11-14-being-poor-or-being-broke/", "schema": "Link", "scheme": "https", "snapshot_abid": "snp_01KA31F51W0FB7A41001ST98M9", "snapshot_id": "7e05ceba-2ccf-4338-a6f9-4c7673a4a289", "sources": [ "/data/sources/1763186282-import.txt" ], "tags": null, "tags_str": "", "timestamp": "1763186283.539311", "title": "You misunderstand what it means to be poor - Dom Corriveau", "url": "https://blog.ctms.me/posts/2025-11-14-being-poor-or-being-broke/" }