The Problem With Laughing At Poor People
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 24. 07. 2023
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Edited By: Andrew Gonzales
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I canât believe I have to say it⊠you shouldnât laugh at poor peopleâŠ
But doing exactly that has become one of the most popular content genres in personal finance, and even if you are the one doing the laughing itâs still probably costing you money. Personal finance is not really that complicated, which is a problem for the people that have built entire media brands around the subject. Nobody is going to tune into a radio show, buy the latest book, watch a weekly upload or attend a two-day seminar that just says save money, avoid high interest debt and invest broadly on repeat.
Some of these people are making millions of dollars every year from their audience so they need to come up with new and exciting ways to say the same thing. One of the most popular ways to pad out personal finance content has become live reactions to peopleâs personal situations.
A guest will come on the show to discuss their personal financial situation and the host will give advice to the person to help them clear up their debt, earn additional income, reduce their expenses, or make investments. You might think this sounds like a harmless way for people in desperate situations to get some much-needed advice, and for the âfinfluencersâ audience to learn from other peopleâs mistakes.
Two years ago, when I first covered the problems with personal finance influencers, I said their reaction content was the least harmful thing they did when the alternative was making uneducated predictions about specific stocks or cryptos. But I was wrong, for three reasons⊠The first reason is that there is very little to learn from these shows and all you ARE going to get from them is financial stress. Did you know that having a hundred thousand dollars in credit card debt and choosing not to work full-time is bad for your personal finances? If so, you probably already know everything you could learn by watching people in extremely poor financial situations.
So why else do people watch it?
The Dave Ramsey show has over twenty-three MILLION listeners every week, Suze Orman had similar viewership when her show aired on CNBC and even on CZcams the genre is insanely popular. Financial stress is at an all-time high. A 2022 survey conducted by CNBC found that 70% of Americans were stressed about their personal finances. Watching people that have made even worse personal financial decisions is a great coping mechanism to put personal worries into perspective, but itâs not a good long-term solution.
Watching this kind of personal finance content makes it easier to justify poor financial decisions because âat least itâs not as bad as that guy who financed a tesla while working part time at Arbyâs.â These shows also bring on guests that are doing extremely well financially, which will only add to a listenerâs financial stress. If the show canât find an extremely wealthy guest to talk openly about their finances, the show host themselves will normally step up to tell everybody watching how rich they are.
Comparison is not only the thief of joy, but it can also motivate people to take unnecessary risks to catch up to people that are not representative of a normal financial situation. The producers behind these shows know that extreme financial situations sell well in todayâs fight for attention and this leads to stories that are simply made up. Now I am not calling out anybody for directly lying to their audience, but these shows get millions of views and people are willing to do crazy things for their fifteen minutes of fame.
If the guest makes up a crazy story about being in terrible debt or making million dollars a month from drop shipping at the age of twelve, then that makes great content that will stand out even if it does come at the expense of the viewers financial understanding. Made up situations are not going to teach you anything about personal finance. You are probably not in the extreme financial situations of these guests, you donât need to know how to most effectively cash out of your late stage startup and you already know that payday loans are bad. You are really watching this for entertainment, and that entertainment is not harmless.
So itâs time to learn How Money Works to find out the problems with laughing at poor people⊠yes reallyâŠ
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As a poor person I approve of this message.
and don't forget, most successful financial "gurus" make their money from selling courses to poor people
As someone who got basically tossed on the streets at 17 and had to crawl its way up to a comfortable middle-class lifestyle from the very bottom of society (my dad was a coke dealer and my mom is schizophrenic), ANYONE who laughs at poor people were most likely spoonfed their position. They're probably not even aware of it either because they never experienced less than the situation they were born in.
I laugh at poor people all the time. Every morning when I get ready for work I see a poor person in the mirror haha.
My biggest problem with Dave is that he was millions in debt in his mid 20s. He was able to get out of it by filing for bankruptcy and getting help from his families connections. He has shit on people who got âgovernment handoutsâ and people who go into debt. He is the definition of a hypocrite.
The solution is always a moving goal post so scummy people can push the blame on poor people. "Oh you're poor? You should have gone to college. Oh you did? Well you should have studied science. Oh you're an engineer... Well, you wasted your money going to college. The real jobs are trades like plumbing. Oh...you're an ex plumber? Well, you should have studied harder and gone to college."
Being poor is simply lack of money - it does not mean a lack of work ethics, professionalism, intelligence, character, etc.
I like how the common people are called âunsophisticatedâ investors while the âsophisticatedâ investors brought us the Great Recession đ
I remember when the housing market burst in the 2000s, I was a kid at the time. So many people here had to start going to the foodbank, and I remember there was one man who was angry he could only get one loaf of bread - he had a complete meltdown. Many of the poor people who used the foodbank started snickering at him and non-verbally mocking him. When he left I was so mad that I told people he was probably new to needing charity and they should think about what he's going through. Everyone looked so shocked like they hadn't even thought about how the man must be feeling. The world would be a
âNow Iâm not calling anybody out for directly lying to their audienceâ
These people built entire careers off of telling people âoh you have debt? Sell assets and pay itâ. Well no shit anybody couldâve told you that.
Damn, you've really made me rethink my bad habit of laughing at the poor. Next time I step in front of the mirror, I'll try to do better.
Never look down on people you might end up joining later on, that's just hubris.
It is never okay to laugh at people, but it is especially revolting when the victim is poor. Usually not through their own fault either. The rich, including self-made rich, don't get how much help they have had along the way.
I agree with the bulk of what you're saying. But as a licensed financial advisor who worked with retail banking clients I can tell you the snowball method has a lot more validity than you'd expect.
I would like to point out an inaccuracy. Dave does NOT say to save a nest egg while paying off debt. He says to do all of the steps 1 at a time until the last few. First, get $1000 for emergencies, THEN pay off all of your debts using the debt snowball, THEN get a 3-6 month nest egg, THEN start investing.
Comparison is a thief of joy. I've never heard someone say that. It hit the right spot. Depressing spot, but the right spot
As a poor person, i laugh at whatever new kick to the balls life decides to throw at me!...
Most self help gurus of any stripe didn't become rich employing their own advice. They got rich selling their own advice. Nothing wrong with that, but context matters.