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There are a lot of ppl pointing out ways to deal with this, including making public transit free
The point is that if i couldn’t pay the $2 or whatever it was back then to get to and from my shitty retail job i certainly couldn’t afford the $100 fine
The point is that if i couldn’t pay the $2 or whatever it was back then to get to and from my shitty retail job i certainly couldn’t afford the $100 fine
Public transit and retail aint one-to-one comparisons but I’m sure a <4-percent fare evasion rate is comparable to/lower than the amount clothing stores or whomever lose to theft
Leaving aside the ethics here, fare-jumpers/shoplifters ain’t the reason these entities lose money
Leaving aside the ethics here, fare-jumpers/shoplifters ain’t the reason these entities lose money
Most people in NYC ride the subway to get around, but the cost is not the same for everyone: a weekly unlimited Metrocard is about to be $32 and the monthly $121
Guess what? Poor ppl paying more bc they’re not going to have that lying around + so they pay for individual rides!
Guess what? Poor ppl paying more bc they’re not going to have that lying around + so they pay for individual rides!
I still remember this day when my dude @TheHCIC walked with me from Bed-Stuy to SoHo because i told him had enough money to either get *into* Manhattan or get home *from* there — but not both
To clarify some things and pull on this thread a little more:
Im using “poor” in lieu of “broke” here bc i grew up poor and there was not much to catch me during tho; literally would come to Manhattan bc a friend would offer to buy me food.
Im using “poor” in lieu of “broke” here bc i grew up poor and there was not much to catch me during tho; literally would come to Manhattan bc a friend would offer to buy me food.
“Broke,” to me, suggests something that is potentially temporary (like folks in entry-level post-college jobs) or maybe some proximity to some other kinds of capital.
Medical interns and grad students are broke,* you know? Me? I was poor.
*w/ first-gen caveats and qualifiers
Medical interns and grad students are broke,* you know? Me? I was poor.
*w/ first-gen caveats and qualifiers
And when we’re talking abt poverty being expensive, it means stuff like not going to the check cashing spot and paying those high-ass fees bc at least i i didn’t have to worry abt any of those inevitable minimum balance fee/overdraft fees that banks assess, or the $3 ATM fee.
(Those bank fees were opportunistically assessed: Elizabeth Warren, in her former life as a law prof, liked to talk abt how banks would hold on to charges that the most vulnerable customers made w/ their cards and run them in an order to maximize the possibility of overdraft.)
We shit on check cashing spots but at least i knew the money i had was ~actually~ the money i had, you know?
