Was Malthus ever poor?

[garbon]

Same thing with being poor, there is obviously a statistical definition and in the United States at least it's based on income. If you fell below that level you could call yourself "poor" in that sense, but if you had access to untapped resources that easily could have dramatically enhanced your life then at best you were "living poor" you were never truly poor.

Which is why income is a bad way to define poor. You can have a high income and still make yourself poor through bad management of it. Or pull down a really small income while owning millions of dollars worth of assets. I would venture to guess that both of those conditions are too common to be called outliers too. Luckily, it is taken into account for some forms of government stuff, but basing a statistical analysis or some kind of policymaking on income alone is dangerous.

I don't know why either of your examples would fall under the term poor. In the first, if the individual stopped being so profligate they'd be fine and in the 2nd if a person sold some of their assets they'd be fine.  Now granted, it isn't that simple as assets can be tied up and a person could have already spent too much - but still seems an odd label when there are still options.

[The Brain]

I wouldn't sell my games. Not for money anyway.

[katmai]

If it makes Malthus feel better I'm sure he thinks he was poor.

But I think we all know the troof!

[The Brain]

He was Jew poor.

[Ed Anger]

I wouldn't sell my games. Not for money anyway.

Just for farm animals.

[Admiral Yi]

Which is why income is a bad way to define poor. You can have a high income and still make yourself poor through bad management of it. Or pull down a really small income while owning millions of dollars worth of assets. I would venture to guess that both of those conditions are too common to be called outliers too. Luckily, it is taken into account for some forms of government stuff, but basing a statistical analysis or some kind of policymaking on income alone is dangerous.

I disagree with both of these.  If you have high income, no matter how badly you manage it you will always have a nice paycheck next pay period.  And if you have millions of dollars worth of assets they are generating income.

Unless you are some kind of super-retard that owns 20 houses and just likes to look at them while you starve.

[The Brain]

What about a person who owns 20 nicely painted 28 mm scale armies? Oh, and stares at them at starves.

[Admiral Yi]

What about a person who owns 20 nicely painted 28 mm scale armies? Oh, and stares at them at starves.

Dedicated.

[katmai]

What about a person who owns 20 nicely painted 28 mm scale armies? Oh, and stares at them at starves.

we call them the Brain.

[CountDeMoney]

I sold most of my 1st wargame collection

I'd have had more respect for you if you were sucking cock. 

[OttoVonBismarck]

I'm not particularly concerned with statistical definitions, while DGuller is horrible and I'd love to see him buried up to his neck in dirt and watch people hurl car batteries at him til he was dead

That's not nice. 

I actually complimented you--I said you were right, that's the highest praise I give!

[OttoVonBismarck]

Why car batteries?  Not a natural choice.

Malthus has never claimed that if he were dying of starvation or on the verge of having his power cut off his parents wouldn't have helped him out.  I don't think that's a fair test of "poor."  If I understand him correctly, his parents made it clear they were not going to subsidize his living expenses.  So he was to all intents and purposes living the life of a poor person.  He earned little income and lived modestly.

I was joking about slumming.  I was joking because Malthus gave no indication that he had bountiful other employment opportunities that would have paid much more, but which he declined because he wanted to keep it real or whatever.  I got the sense that he got out of college with an anthropology degree, and he did the best he could, which was a shit job working at a pottery shop.

Just to test your thinking, do you believe Mitt and Ann Romney were poor when they were living in their first apartment?

[Admiral Yi]

Just to test your thinking, do you believe Mitt and Ann Romney were poor when they were living in their first apartment?

I don't know much about their situation except they ate off an ironing board.  But sure, if he was struggling to make ends meet as a magic underpants salesman i wouldn't have that much trouble calling him poor.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Well, my understanding is they got married and then Mitt enrolled at BYU. They moved into a basement apartment paying around $60/mo in rent, and used a pair of sawhorses with a door laid over them as a communal study desk and a ironing board as a dining table.

But you would consider them "poor" in that scenario even though Mitt had a father that had ran a major automaker and who was a millionaire? Anyway, after they finished at BYU Mitt moved to Belmont, MA and bought his first home with a $42,000 loan from his father--proving that money was always there whenever it was needed. I don't see that as a "poverty" situation.

[mongers]

Well, my understanding is they got married and then Mitt enrolled at BYU. They moved into a basement apartment paying around $60/mo in rent, and used a pair of sawhorses with a door laid over them as a communal study desk and a ironing board as a dining table.

But you would consider them "poor" in that scenario even though Mitt had a father that had ran a major automaker and who was a millionaire? Anyway, after they finished at BYU Mitt moved to Belmont, MA and bought his first home with a $42,000 loan from his father--proving that money was always there whenever it was needed. I don't see that as a "poverty" situation.

Indeed.