Comment on More Americans are financing groceries with buy now, pay later loans — and more are paying those bills late, survey says

MissJinx@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• chilicheeselies@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  If you are at the point where you are buying grocoeries in installments, who cares about paying it back. What good is a good credit score if you cant afford to buy anything anyways. Just survive any way you can at that point

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• sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Cost of living is too high, put it on credit.

  Your alternative is starve now.

  Either way, this is about to get a lot more bonkers in roughly the next 30 to 60 days as Just In Time delivery… kinda just, stops working, and grocery stores will have to both raise prices and ration items per customer per week to deal with shortages and try to minimize in-store injuries and deaths.

  Go look up a compilations of black friday shopping stampedes.

  Imagine that, but for groceries, every time a grocery store restocks… for the forseeable future.

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  • SpaceShort@feddit.uk ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That’s probably why the capital class want fascism. Because if that happens in a democracy, they would have their capital expropriated.

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    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Historically speaking, basically, yes, the capitalist class essentially always sides with a nascent fascist movement as it is opposed to making any truly meaningful concessions to workers.

      But it is important to note that fascism is, or arises from… an ostensible capitalist democracy … in decay.

      It arises as a reaction to over exploitation of the capitalists.

      The fascists are always incompetent idiots at actually running anything, actual policy… beyond being brutally indimidating and violent bullies.

      But! They promise growth and stability.

      Morons believe them. Many of these morons… are the capitalists.

      This works well for a while, but eventually, fascist mismanagement leads to the capitalists actually having a whole bunch of their businesses collapse, as the economy broadly suffers, or maybe its war time babyyyy and oh well turns out that its also bad to fund endless foreign invasions and/or be invaded yourself.

      But, by then, its too late.

      The capitalists sided with the fascists initially, to avoid structural concessions to workers… but now that everything is fucked, and/or dear leader / the party has some incomprehensible zany nonsense plan… well now the capitalists mostly get either outright or functionally nationalized, and lose even more than if they had just gone with the comparatively more minor concessions to workers.

      Poison chalice.

      Prisoner’s Dilemma, game theoretic failure, that humanity just keeps replicatinf with minor variations and new flavors.

      … Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was…

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      • SpaceShort@feddit.uk ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Thank you for the explanation. I hope it doesn’t turn into nuclear war. What’s happening in India and Pakistan doesn’t look good.

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  • dubyakay@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Can you elaborate on this? Just In Time delivery? Is this a US thing?

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    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yeah, put super simply:

      Minimize needed actual storage space and time a thing spenda in storage… by relying on very frequent and consistent logistics.

      Its very efficient in the sense of minimizing operating costs…

      But it is also extremely fragile, a minor perturbation can fuck shit up for weeks or months.

      … And we are getting… well basically the most major disruption in the history of JIT as a logistics paradigm.

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      • hazeydreams@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Really thought we would have learned that JIT is a horrible strategy after covid… That was only a few years ago…

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• inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Then you’ve never been poor and living paycheck to paycheck.

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  • MissJinx@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I understnd financing. The problem is finance groceries. So you cover the unexpected and finance groceries. what about next month?! Unless you get a way to make more money to cover the difference you going ro have to finance again plus interests

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    • inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Welcome to the Sam Vimes Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness.

      That’s the kind of choice of surviving that comes with living while poor in America that happens way, way too often.

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    • Evkob@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Girl, if they don’t eat they won’t make it to next month! This isn’t a financial decision, it’s a survival decision.

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• fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Capitalism isn’t paying enough for workers to live off of and they system is papering over it with debt. Problem is debt isn’t a sustainable way to do it since it has to get paid back. We’ve been seeing sketchier and sketchier things happening in finance and when these loans don’t get repaid (and this article is a sign we’re getting close) the whole house or cards comes tumbling down

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• bobs_monkey@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Some people don’t have the option, and end up relying on these services. It’s similar to the payday loan trap. Being poor is expensive.

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• deceased@lemmy.ml ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  If you’re living paycheck to paycheck, it takes one unexpected expense and suddenly you’re hustling to get food on the table. The cycle then repeats itself.

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  • MissJinx@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I understand the need but you just push the snowball hoping for a miracle.

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  • Landless2029@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’ve been here. It’s expensive to be poor.

    You need a car to work. Cars are expensive. You get a old clunker.
    You work and live check to check. Maybe $50 or $100 left over after taxes and expenses. Not really possible to have an emergency fund.
    A single injury or car breaking down and you need to borrow money. From family, friends or some shitty company.

    Oh and then your yearly raise comes around at $0.50/hr that doesn’t even cover your rent increasing let alone inflation.

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    • veroxii@aussie.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. … A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. … But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socio-economic unfairness.

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      • Landless2029@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Yep. This tracks.

        My issue now with products is planned obsolescence. Any things aren’t made to last like they used to. They also have extra technology in them making them harder to repair. Appliances, cars and more.

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    • bdonvr@thelemmy.club ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Whoops some bill auto-drafted unexpectedly

      Your account is negative now, oh and throw a $25 fee on top.

      Looks like you’re scrounging for dinner tonight. And the rest of the week. Maybe skip some meals because you have no choice.

      Shit sucks ass.

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      • JustOneMoreCat@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Once I bounced a check to our water company and they refused to take checks or credit cards from me for a YEAR as a punishment. It was a one-time accident after paying on time for around seven years. I literally had to drive my ass down there with cash. It’s a small rural water service, not a big corporation - they chose to be complete assholes even after I explained the situation (we had a baby that month and forgot a monthly $ transfer in the chaos).

        Same mistake probably cost us $120 in overdraft fees. Society financially punishes people who need money the most and rewards the people who have plenty. It’s ridiculous.

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      • gingernate@sopuli.xyz ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Get a less shitty bank

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      • MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Getting a checking account with no overdraft fees is definitely a plus in those situations

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      • Landless2029@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Peanut butter and bread it is!

        Food banks are a godsend in these situations. Don’t donate money. Find a local community center that offers assistance and donate foodstuffs. Things like rice, canned beans and mixed veggies are always welcome.

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• HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The idea is that if you are throwing a party or buying something big, then this will be useful for those purchases.

  It isn’t a good idea, though.

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  • geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Probably should not be throwing parties when they are poor

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    • BakerBagel@midwest.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yeah man, fuck people just trying to throw a birthday party for their kid. People need to suffer more

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      • fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Also living miserly won’t actually get you out of poverty so what’s the point?

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    • fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      You can’t not live life. You can’t budget your way out of poverty

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      • desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        yes, however you absolutely can budget yourself into it.

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