This is a spawn of the "The other kind of preparedness" thread, which touched on financial preparedness. We're doing very well over in that thread on a knife edge of political, without anyone getting cut.

Here's something I'd like to add to the discussion about the paths to poverty and out again in America, and it's based on some observations and the fact that I've been working at an ad agency that has a credit card company as a client for almost four years, so I have a lot of data about how/when/why people get into debt.

We touched on payday loans and we touched on "irresponsible buying" in the other thread, but I think there's this deep-set conviction for many people that being poor is a choice, and with simple persistence and determination, anyone can overcome poverty, or at least be poor with some level of dignity.

However, I think that in the last 25 years, there have been some massive changes in America - changes that have made it much harder to simply fight your way out of a hole, and changes that have made it much harder to stop sliding down if you do fall.

Here are some examples of what I mean.

You need internet access if you want to find a job.
Newspapers are an ever-smaller source of job listings. You need to get access to the internet (and you pay with time or with money) to find most job listings these days. Not only that, but dialup access isn't really practical for most job listing sites, so you need broadband (if you can get it).

You have increased telecommunications costs if you want to work.
While a prepaid mobile phone is the cheapest way to get telephone service in the USA, it is still an expensive way to communicate. In the USA we have a double-cost system for mobile calls - the caller pays AND the recipient pays. This adds up.

There are limited housing options.
All around the USA, the cost of housing is very, very high compared to the cost of housing in 1980. In urban situations - where the jobs are - it's even worse. The eradication of the SRO - single room occupancy - was a huge factor in displacing people with low incomes from places where the jobs are.

Salaries have not kept up with inflation.
The value of a minimum wage dollar is less now than ever. Minimum wage work used to be for a minimal standard of living where you could afford simple food, simple housing and you could afford to get to work and back, and not much else. It does not - and can not - do that anymore.