to be irritated of people complaining about poverty when not poor

[JazbayGrapes]

ok, i get times are tough, and you may need to economize and go without things you're used to.
But not homeless, not starving, not going without essential medicines.
And the fact that you didn't go on holiday when your neighbor did is neither here not there.

I am with you OP. You can say that you have not been able to go on a holiday you'd like, or are not doing a certain activity, without calling it poverty.

You missed out the end of my post stating I am careful who I talk about it to.

Whilst I think a lot of low earners work as hard as me and my husband, I also clearly outlined in my post that we have both studied to masters level for our jobs, both manage people so yes I do think we take on some extra stress to justify our higher wages than some which should mean we should have a higher standard of living. If it didn’t no one would want to take on the extra responsibility.

YABVU

Bread and Roses.

If the "high earner" is moaning that they cant afford their cleaner or their holiday its seen as distasteful.

But , that low earner cleaner, and that low earner air hostess may well find themselves out of a job if no one is buying.

I get the whole "I'm starving" idiocy, as I have actually lived many years with next to nothing to eat and remember how hard those times were. We're more comfortable now........or were. Now our bills are taking all of our very good salaries.

But there are no rules about moaning about a lack of money to spend how we want. We all (mostly) work hard for our money, in sometimes thankless jobs. I want to have money for a holiday not just barely scraping by paying the mortgage and bills. I'm perfectly entitled to moan about it, and heck, even worry about it.

That's very rude.

We live in 2022... poverty now is different to say 100 years ago where poverty meant sending your kid out begging in rags with a cap in hand.

It is ok to want to be alive and enjoy things, and not just survive.
I wish people would not say someone is not in poverty because they own their own home. You can be asset rich and cash poor.

When my teens want another Mac Donald's or treat and I say we cant because of the CofL. They will say we can afford it.

I say just because we can afford it doesn't mean I want to

Ie I'm still entitled to be peeved about the cost even if I can scrape by.

I think people are harsh to OP.

Unless you've lived in poverty, I.e. been homeless, not having enough money to go to school, having to sacrifice either heating, eating or paying rent, missing meals etc.

Then you're not living in poverty.

Yes, the issues with inflation and the cost of living crisis are very, very shit, and I am very sorry for anyone having to go through that. There will be better times one time, even if it doesn't seem like it at the time.

Nevertheless, I digress from OP's post, but yes, only having to cut back on things - which we shouldn't as it will employ people - is not living in poverty.

Make people unemployed*

Hard disagree, being "grateful" is self-serving, it might put you in a better mood to express more gratitude than envy but it actually does fuck-all for the real human beings who have less and whose conditions aren't being improved by being used as a prop for someone else's gratitude game.
More outrage means it's more likely for the government to listen, there's never any meaningful economic change until the well-off workers start getting angry about losing their fun stuff, and a holiday a year isn't a luxury either, we're brainwashed to think basic survival is something to be grateful for. There are ways to complain that acknowledge your privilege and ways that don't and that's pretty tacky but being "grateful" for being privileged is kind of even worse, it does nothing, macro or micro, to change the system and it's patronizing af to the people who suffer more

YANBU

I reached my limit when someone was complaining about the cost of heating their 4 bedroom, 3 storey house. "It's just a normal modest house!", err no it's not.

Or maybe it was when someone said they would get their husband to shoot wildlife or catch fish to eat.

I get that it's bad for everyone, but it just illustrates that no one gives a crap about you if you are poor. All of these problems only become real, obvious problems when they start happening to middle class people. If actual poor people complained the way the people on here did, there would have been nothing else on here, ever.

I will complain about having to tighten my belt.

I’ve worked full time and very hard since I was 14 to be able to enjoy now.

When I was young I dreamt of holidays and nice things, and gradually, with long hours and much effort I was able to save and buy what I liked or go where I wanted. I watched my grandparents and parents retire at 60, and embark on adventure after adventure. Photos of them riding elephants in Thailand; standing with the captain on cruise ships; snorkelling in Egypt; taking safaris in Africa and lounging on beaches in Fiji.

I worked like crazy through school including part time jobs; went to uni paid for entirely by myself; worked my way up the ladder and finally started to be able to spend a few grand a year on the things that meant a lot to me. This lasted just a few years before Covid hit.

I’m not starving or living in poverty and I’m certainly not trying to imply others don’t work as hard as I do, but I feel robbed. Cheated of the life I’ve been working towards.

I didn’t want to work hard just to pay my humongous mortgage, bills and put food on the table. I wanted to work hard to travel and experience. To live life to the fullest and have adventures. So, I’m totally pissed off that my disposable income is quickly going in the complete opposite direction and it infuriates me that I don’t believe in the global issues that have put us in this position.

I loathe this government; but I equally loathe the alternative. I have now and again wondered if there is any point anymore.

So, whilst I’m not on the breadline, my well-being has suffered, whether others believe that’s justified or not.

Why on earth would someone who works for a living, paying taxes and national insurance be grateful that they are not homeless and begging on the streets?
Saying “I’m starving,” is a turn of phrase the same as “I’m freezing.” It doesn’t mean you are coated in ice and 3 minutes away from dropping dead. It means you are cold, very cold.
I’m grateful for lots of things but grateful that I live in a house, albeit one which I can’t afford to heat as much as I’d like, when I work damned hard for it, no not really.

This! We are in our late 20s, have two young children and are far from the poverty line, in fact we are in the process of buying a house. It is a 2 up 2 down in the north, with a modest mortgage - even before all the upheaval we had decided we wouldn't stretch ourselves much in case shit happened. Now it has, so we are very glad we didn't overcommit! However it does make us angry and upset that we are having to significantly cut back our leisure spending - which was almost all based around our kids and was modest to begin with - whilst the super rich effectively loot our country and are laughing all the way to bank. Meanwhile I can't buy my daughter a magazine or an ice cream anymore.

Just because someone isn't homeless and starving doesn't mean it's not shit to be cold because you don't want to put the heating on, or not shit to give up your luxuries or not shit to have to use your 3 year old coat instead of a new one.

It's always shit to have less.

Might not be poor, but am poorer. I'm going to use a comparative adjective because it is accurate

We are a low income family (25k) and live as such with minimal financial commitments. We are fortunate to have a council house and no real "locked in" bills.
My elder sister's household income is around 100k. She has the financial commitnents to reflect this (as would I in the same situation). Now with the cost of living crisis she is in constant fear she will not be able to meet these commitments. She has earned the right to enjoy the money she makes. She is not poor but she is feeling the squeeze much more than my household.

It's all relative.

I think the problem is expectation. We were told when young if you worked hard you could get a good job, a house big enough for you and your kids but now that (quite reasonable expectation) is out of reach and it’s shit.

I am a senior leader in a school. Husband works in public sector. We both drive 10 year old cars that we owe nothing on. No debt between us. When our mortgage rate goes up in a couple of months we will genuinely struggle. We have been through finances and tried to get rid of as much as possible. We do pay swimming lessons for our eldest, but I refuse to cut that. But with childcare cost, huge increase in mortgage costs, energy cost increases plus rising cost of everything , we will have to watch every penny. I think if we are in the situation many people must be struggling more, I really don’t know how many people will cope. The lack of sympathy and understand some people show is shocking. I’m sick of people going on about Costa’s and IPhones, people are going to lose their homes and many people will be cold and hungry this winter.

we clearly socialise in different circles. I have never known anyone to claim to be “poor and starving” when they are just a bit skint. I’m struggling to decide if you’ve a bee in your bonnet so are over exaggerating or if you really do socialise with a bunch of drama llamas claiming to be poor and starving just because they don’t have a Starbucks.

It's a useful narrative for a certain type of political persuasion I guess. Same as for house prices. You know : no one is really struggling. They're just whining about their holidays/avocados/bimimbap. Nothing to see here, nothing to worry about.

Etc.

I know what it is to be hard up relatively speaking by western standards. But then I have visited parts of the world where children get their meal off the local rubbish tip. Puts things in perspective like!

I think people are misunderstanding the OP. She's not irritated by people moaning about a reduced standard of living, it's people claiming they will be starving and cold.

I know what you mean. I have a friend who makes claims like "I'm relying on social welfare. I need to figure out if I can eat some days."

A massive massive massive untruth. She gets some fraudulent social welfare payments, she has more disposable income than most people I know and certainly a far better social life.

We should all be up in arms about the rise in the cost of living - we should be progressing not going backwards! We should all be paid a living wage, not a survival wage.

Yes. Every time I see a wee orphan on a rubbish dump I think to myself 'have it all Rishi, just take it all. I have nothing to complain about.'