" Residents of one Chicago ward — mostly people who lived in housing projects — spent $70 million on lottery tickets a couple of years back. Virtually all the residents were African Americans who had incomes of less than $8,000 a year; more than 90 percent of them were unemployed. Of course, they weren't thinking about "building wealth" but about "hitting it big." Dollar by dollar, they made what they didn't recognize as a multimillion-dollar investment with no realistic chance of paying off. Yet the staggering amount spent in this one area by such financially marginal people is dramatic proof that African Americans have the means to build wealth collectively. One of the best ways to do so is through investment clubs. Starting an investment club is easy...." http://archive.blackvoices.com/columns/brown/bl_ways_08.asp --------------------------------------------- Myself, I like this approach. I've come to realize that one of the best ways to help poor people is to teach them what wealthy people know,and in this case it's investing money. Like the author of the article mentions, there is some money even in poor areas. The problem is that many poor people haven't been educated on what can be done with some of this money to change their financial situation. Any opinions?
That is very interesting. Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime. - Chinese proverb
She didn't even mention how much they probably spent on Air Jordans and other clothes. People in U.S housing projects are some of the best dressed poor people around. LOL
Yeah,but keep in mind that lotto tickets only cost a $1.00. And also,some Chicago housing projects like the Robert Taylor Homes and Cabrini Green can have over 15,000 residents. So that can be alot of people buying multiple tickets.
Cue the angry (and poor for life) socialist to come in here and slam the evils of investing, capitalism, and Wall Street in 3, 2, 1,...
I think that it's sad that these people are so far down on their luck that their only hope is the lottery.
I think you have the cause and effect backwards. They're poor mainly because they mismanage their money...for example, by playing the lottery. I agree with the original poster, they could do much better by pooling their money together and investing it.
"She didn't even mention how much they probably spent on Air Jordans and other clothes. People in U.S housing projects are some of the best dressed poor people around. LOL" This is pretty true. a lot of the people i go to school with who live in the developments do have expensive shoes and clothes. not to degrade all residents of developments, but they usually do spend high amounts of money on apparel.
I brought this topic up on another forum and someone pointed out that one potential problem with getting poor people involved in investing was that if they are on welfare,the dept may cut or end their benefits if they find out that they are involved in stocks or other investments. If this is the case,then it would be difficult for more poor people who are currently on public assistance to get involved in investing. So my question is, why doesn't the gov't make investment info a part of it's anti-poverty programs? Is anyone familiar with welfare and how they decide who does,and doesn't need assistance?
There isn't any money to mismanage when you are only making $8,000 a year. I think it is a great idea to make investments a part of our anti-poverty programs. But I don't know if somehting like that would ever happen. Ever think that everyone just may be content with the fact that these people are spending so much money on lottery tickets? Why would the government want to change something that is making so much money for them? If I invested my dollar in the market it would still be mine to hopefully get back and then some, if I spend my dollar on a lottery ticket, that dollar goes to the government for whatever they spend it on and I never see it again unless I am the lucky one in a kajillion that wins - then a good chunk goes right back to them for taxes anyways.
I personally think that the investment clubs make good sense and they are cheaper on the people in the long run.
Well it really needs to happen in some way. The fact is, there is too much financial mismanagement with some segments of Black America especially in poor and working class areas. " These are tough economic times, especially for African-Americans, for whom the unemployment rate is more than 10%. Alarmingly, rather than belt-tightening, the response has been to spend more. In many poor neighborhoods, one is likely to notice satellite dishes and expensive new cars. According to Target Market, a company that tracks black consumer spending, blacks spend a significant amount of their income on depreciable products. In 2002, the year the economy nose-dived, we spent $22.9 billion on clothes, $3.2 billion on electronics and $11.6 billion on furniture to put into homes that, in many cases, were rented. Among our favorite purchases are cars and liquor. Blacks make up only 12% of the U.S. population, yet account for 30% of the country's Scotch consumption. Detroit, which is 80% black, is the world's No. 1 market for Cognac. So impressed was Lincoln with the $46.7 billion that blacks spent on cars that the automaker commissioned Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, the entertainment and fashion mogul, to design a limited-edition Navigator replete with six plasma screens, three DVD players and a Sony PlayStation 2..." http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-04-01-young_x.htm
Catch a man a fish, and you can sell it to him. Teach a man to fish, and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity. - Karl Marx
Give a man a fish, he eats for day. Teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime. Some how the Chinese wisdom surpasses our buddy Karl on this one.
