How has poverty affected your upbringing/ views on money/ financial well-being? How has wealth?

I did not grow up poor in any sense of the word but my mom did. I'm talking no running water and an outhouse poor, some of their furniture was just hunks of wood and you had to help work the farm all day if you went going to school after grabbing raw potatos and buttermilk to eat in the morning. It made me really desperate to never be poor and horrified by how they are treated. Because when you don't have money some people will look at those people like they don't matter, like their lives and desires aren't important. You end up teathered to your work. You can't stay home from work unless you're deathly ill because you can't miss the pay check. You may miss your children growing up because you are working yourself to the bone to keep a roof over their heads. If you don't have insurance and you need medical treatment they will fuck you over (like an associate of my mom got in into an accident and the hospital tried to take his leg. He refused and what do you know they were able to save it; they had to call in a specialist for someone with no insurance though, that was the problem). Growing up my mom made sure to tell me what her life was like, how fucking hard she had to get where she is and how I should never, ever, take what I have for granted. I also get very angry when I see people punching down on those who are poor with like "if you're poor why do you have xyz? Just deal with it" not caring that your assets are incredibly liquid when you don't have much money. You could save for ages and never get a house. And even if you did you can't maintain it. You can however get your kid some nice shoes if you save up a bit to help make then feel a better; $90 shoes are obtainable, and $90,000 house is not. Yes some people take this too far, abuse the system, and spend money they don't really have to their detriment, I know I have many poor family members that use up all their money on frivolous stuff and then can't pay their bills and that's on them, but I don't assume that's everyone.

/r/AskWomen Thread