by apsec112 on 10/23/18, 2:45 PM
by jstanley on 10/23/18, 3:23 PM
On opting out of playing the lottery:
> It may seem like a waste of money, but for people like you who have no 401(k) or savings account, it can look like an investment in a better future.
How is that advice helpful? A lottery ticket is not an investment in any way.
by jbverschoor on 10/23/18, 2:52 PM
Funny, because I have no way to see what my state is. How I live, subscriptions etc. So everything comes at a surprise.
by mattlondon on 10/23/18, 4:46 PM
75usd on a phone bill? Really? Basic plans with unlimited calls and texts, and maybe half a gig of data are about £6-8 (say 8-10USD) here (1). 75 USD should be enough for 6 months service in any other western country, easily.
The cell phone bill makes me question how realistic this "simulator" is. Are the healthcare costs realistic? Obviously in every other western country these costs would be zero (or very close to zero if you don't qualify for 100% free prescriptions in the UK at least).
Is healthcare really that bad in the US? Really? Genuinely staggering if so.
1 - https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/compare/sim_only_deals/
by jldugger on 10/23/18, 5:41 PM
Eyeballing it with a spreadsheet, simulator offers $1440 in monthly income, but at least $2000 in expenses. You've got a car to pay off and insure, a kid, a pet, a heap of CC debt, and a cell phone bill triple what I pay. You're renting an apartment, but you have monthly gas and electric bills of 125 and 150. Internet fees are higher than I'm paying now. And zero access to credit to make any investments you'd need to make, or tax credits for dependent children, retirement savings, Earned Income Tax Credit, etc.
Even if you _could_ fix all that, you're still not going to make ends meet. The player is effectively bankrupt.
by narrator on 10/23/18, 2:51 PM
This game needs in-app purchases so you can win at it faster.
by emddudley on 10/23/18, 4:32 PM
If I were only earning $1000/mo then my Affordable Care Act health insurance would be free...
by Svoka on 10/23/18, 9:11 PM
I want real poverty simulator. Or, better, Low Income living. With adequate probabilities (like going more than 10 days without crashing your car), knowing that you have a kid upfront, etc.
by esotericn on 10/23/18, 3:57 PM
I don't think you can call a demonstration that deliberately excludes many available options a "simulator".
If you are poor, then living alone or taking on a lease is insane. The implicit assumption that you can't move and that "the rent" is as high as it is in this demo is untrue.
So what you end up with in this demo is a race against unsustainably high costs because you arbitrarily can't remove them.
by diddid on 10/23/18, 3:57 PM
I was expecting this to be interesting and was excited to play, but it's not. In fact I found it annoying. But maybe that's the point. From playing it made me thing I could get out of poverty.
"You've made your bed and now you need to sleep in it."
by fallingfrog on 10/23/18, 3:18 PM
Such deja vu! This was my life for years.
by swazzy on 10/23/18, 3:35 PM
by sigi45 on 10/23/18, 4:54 PM
Interesting to see those comments on a platform whee the avg warning and chances is way higher than what reality looks for lots of other people.
Yes this game is not realistic. Now let's talk about fairness and responsibilities of us for all others.
by brianwawok on 10/23/18, 4:50 PM
I lost when my landlord raised rent $150. My options were pay or argue. I picked argue, I lost, $150 went away.
In reality I would have squatted and forced them to spend 6 months evicting me, giving me time to save up firsts month rent for a new place.
by root_axis on 10/23/18, 4:38 PM
The "Ask a friend" social media thing is really obnoxious.
by wtmt on 10/23/18, 3:44 PM
Very well done. In a personal or online conversation, it takes a little while to explain how bad things can be for the poorer people and how it’s a vicious circle (or like struggling in quicksand). Many people don't get this without an explanation.
A couple of suggestions:
1. The Facebook and Twitter icons were too close to the last choice on the screens, and I ended up tapping on them when I intended to tap on the last option. This was on a phone. Please move those buttons down a bit.
2. The site didn’t work on Firefox Focus onnthe phone. But it did work on Brave. Something about Firefox Focus’s blocking must’ve caused this. I didn’t have time to figure out the issue.
by sergiotapia on 10/23/18, 3:21 PM
I'm seeing like a site to purchase things for people in need. Can someone link the game, I can't find it in the website's current design.
by shittyadmin on 10/23/18, 3:01 PM
Gotta say, kinda crappy. Why do I have a car? I'm wasting so much money on insurance and gas - that would never work out better than renting a shitty place closer than bussing distance. Accept the commute, even most of the middle class does it anyways so they can live in a bigger house.
And it just randomly decided to take tutoring money away even though I answer its math question correctly? Why do I have over $7000 on my CC bill? Was I living well above my means for some reason? Why do I have a kid? That was a rather poor financial planning decision...
by dnautics on 10/23/18, 4:25 PM
Having been (relatively) poor, I've seen all these things, but not in a single month.
by __initbrian__ on 10/23/18, 7:56 PM
I love that this simulator exists. super stressful
by madeuptempacct on 10/23/18, 4:48 PM
One thing I noticed immediately is that this person has a lot of luxuries:
1. Child.
2. Pet (went to the shelter)
by wolfgke on 10/23/18, 2:43 PM
Instead of complaining about how evil society is that it leaves them in the lurch, poor people should rather be mad at their (often poor) parents that the parents give birth to them.