Both
“The Logic of Stupid Poor People” and “The Money” analyze how poor people spend
their money and whether or not they are spending it in a wise way. In the essay
“The Logic of Stupid Poor People” Cottom explains to readers that she does not
understand why poor people always complain about being poor but then continue
to buy expensive clothing items and other expensive material things. I agree
that it does not make sense why poor people actually do these types of things,
but I also know that those people will not learn until they are literally not
able to afford their necessities. I also agree that a lot of the time people
spend their money on these materialistic items because it is seen as a status symbol.
Status symbols to some people are what truly define them as a human being, and
without showing off what they have they are nobody. On the other hand, “The
Money” written by Junot Diaz explains in his essay the real life struggle he
and his family went through when he was younger because he was poor. Throughout
this essay, it was easier for me as a reader to follow along because it
included personal experience and the essay was not long at all. Diaz includes in his essay that when he and
his family returned home from a family vacation, their mother was shocked to
find out that all of her money she had been saving up for her parents had been
stolen. This was a very hard thing for his mother to experience because those
three hundred dollars were worth a lot more than they owned at the moment.
Although they were dirt poor at the time, his mom still managed to scrape up
extra money just so she could send it to her parents in a different country.
This just goes to show that no matter how poor this family was, their family
was the most important thing to them and they would do anything just to make
sure they are doing fine.
Both assigned readings; “The Money” and “The Logic of Stupid Poor People” present a different look at how poverty affects individuals and the way that they think and behave. The author of “The Logic of Stupid Poor People” Tressie McMillan focuses her attention on the much-discussed subject of why the poor spend money on things that are seen as ‘frivolous’ to outsiders. She proposes the idea that these things that so many consider ‘frivolous’ actually have great impacts on how poorer individuals are perceived. McMillan states “One thing I’ve learned is that one person’s illogical belief is another person’s survival skill” (McMillan 1012), and this is something that I deeply agree with. There is simply no way that one individual can say to another that what they are doing is not the right thing without first having lived the life that the other has, and that just isn’t possible. The author gives a great example of this when she shares an experience she had in which she sat in on an interview and despite one of the applicants doing well in her questioning getting turned down because she wore a cotton rather than silk top (McMillan 1014). While some would ask, “Why would a poor girl pay extra for name brand silk when she could’ve gotten Walmart brand cotton and saved money?” The answer is that that cotton could cost someone a job. Junot Diaz’s writing focuses on another issue entirely. He chose to focus on how poverty affected the dynamic of his childhood. Diaz shares a story from his childhood about how one summer his house was broken into and his mother’s remittance she would send to her parents in The Dominican was stolen. He then went on to find out it was stolen by one of the kids he hung out with and he stole it back for his mom (Diaz 912-915). While at the basic level it seems, Diaz is just telling a story it is not hard to see that he is also sharing something deeper about the way poverty impacted his family’s relationship, his own childhood, ethical choices and even the experience of having one parent who was an immigrant. I also agree with these deeper themes in his writing. Poverty has tremendous effects on every aspect of live and those who live in it.
ReplyDeleteSome people who are not financially stable tend to spend their money on things they do not even need. The people who do such a thing will find them in a bit of a money crunch because they spent it on a random item that they could totally live without having. Like in The Logic of Stupid Poor People, Tressie explains how she has “walked away from many hotly desired purchases.” This is smart of Tressie because she knows she can live without the debt of an item just to save money. People like her are wise enough to conserve her money to spend it on only necessities rather than luxury items that would eat your wallet if you even could afford a wallet. People who live without lavish items tend to live in a more underdeveloped neighborhood like Junot Diaz explains in The Money. He explains that people were always getting robbed “no matter who you were, eventually it was your turn.” This means that at least everyone in that neighborhood has had something taken from them in one form or another and if not your turn will be soon. This way of living is very different because they know that one day their turn will come so they just choose to not have nice things so when it is their turn they have nothing to lose.
ReplyDeleteWhile it is easy to criticize the way the poor handle their money, the amount of frivolity one has is too subjective to be measured. “The Logic of Stupid Poor People” by Cottom acknowledges the belief that many have toward poor people spending money they barely have on expensive items. “If you are poor, why do you spend money on useless status symbols…?” While this seems to be a logical question, there are others things, based on the way our society is set up, that determine the validity of these purchases. Poor people buy these things for the same reason the wealthy do- to belong. (Cottom) The author goes into detail about how when she dressed well, she was offered more opportunities than a less well-dressed opponent was. Although it may be costly, dressing like the people you want to appeal to will allow you to be seen by those people as an equal; If your outward appearance blatantly reveals your lower-class status, you will get overlooked. The latter concept is shown in Diaz’s “The Money.” After having their home broken into, it is mentioned that the police were not called because it wasn’t a “normal neighborhood,” proving the idea that the poor are treated as lesser than. Because they did not live in a wealthy neighborhood and did not outwardly look as if they were worth anything, they didn’t expect to be noticed. The poor have a good reason to buy expensive things; if it means fitting in with society, then it means more doors will be opened to aid in success.
ReplyDeleteI feel that both assigned readings were very Different in terms of aspect and what's being said. I felt the reading "The Logic of Stupid Poor People" was very ignorant and one sided the entire essay. The author Tressie Cottom spent her time criticizing poor people on how they manage their money, for needing help, and because of the stuff that happens to them that they cannot control. I disagree with everything the author feels she knows about for the most part. I knew the essay was going to be one sided when she started it off with "We Hates Us Some Poor People. First they insist on being poor when it is so easy not to be poor." The author seems to not take into consideration that everyone who's poor never had the same upbringing as her which includes the resources and people she was raised by to make her who she is today. I do partially agree with what she said about status symbols in which people spend their money on certain expensive things they can't truly afford; although I don't think she would really understand why they do unless she grew up in their shoes and saw it from their aspect. On the other hand of the readings I felt that "The Money" was very relatable; in which the author Junot Diaz told of his humble beginnings in a very poor family, living in a poor Dominican neighborhood. Diaz explains how when he was younger, although his family was extremely poor, his mother always found a way to send his grandparents back in his homeland money to survive and it didn't make anything better when that money along with other possessions were stolen. The money stolen was three hundred dollars, which may not seem like much to most people but when the author said "You would have thought the thieves had run off with 10 million dollars, how she was carrying on." you knew that every penny they saved was crucial and that this was a family barely surviving with what they could. "The Money" reading shows that not everyone is blessed with the outcomes and resources of the author Tressie Cottom.
ReplyDeleteIn both passages, "The Logic of Stupid Poor People" and "The Money" the value of money is evaluated from the personal perspectives of the authors that struggled financially at a point in their lives. They described the struggles that they had to deal with and how they overcame them. In "The Logic of Stupid Poor People," Cottom explained how people of low or no income had to present themselves as "respectable" and "acceptable" in order to be valued as a responsible person in their societies. Cottom tells us "I do not know how much my mother spent on her camel colored cape or knee-high boots but I know that whatever she paid it returned in hard-to-measure dividends." By this the reader can understand the importance of these "status symbols" in their societies and how rewarding they could be with the long term effects of a higher paying salary and government assistance. In the passage "The Money," Diaz shows the value of family in their culture by illustrating how even while they struggle, she puts her parents above herself. I agree with the things that both these authors do in order to persevere as a low to no income families. Their values and mentality is different and works for them to keep going.
ReplyDeleteIn both "The Logic of Stupid Poor People" and "The Money" the authors discuss personal experiences being poor. They both share their daily struggles and what they had to do to overcome them. Tressie Cottom, the author of "The Logic of Stupid Poor People" criticizes poor people spending the little money they have on expensive items such as Gucci hand bags just so they can feel like they belong in society. I would not agree with Cottom's views, she states that poor people buy these expensive things to fit in with everyone yet she did the same thing and "justifies" it by saying it was for work. I would agree with her when she makes the point that you will get more respect the nicer your dressed. In Diaz's article "The Money" it talks about a poor family that goes on vacation and gets their home broken into. Diaz states that they can't call the police because it is not a "normal neighborhood" everyone in the neighborhood is poor so the police wouldn't care about a robbery. Diaz then finds out that it was actually one of his friends that broke into his family's apartment and stole their money, he then breaks into his friends place during the day, knowing no neighbors would care and the police wouldn't be called and steals his families money back.
ReplyDelete