Comment on Why don't more poor people join mutual aid groups instead of using charities?
GreyShack@lemmy.world 11 months ago
My initial thoughts would be that the priority for most poor people is housing, followed by food and keeping the lights on.
My experience of mutual aid groups is primarily in the form of local exchange trading schemes (LETS), which typically provide services such as cake making, aromatherapy sessions, bicycle repair and maybe garden maintenance etc.
So although you may be able to deal with the food side of things through that to some extent, there really aren’t many landlords who will take rent in the form of aromatherapy and almost no utility suppliers will accept payment in bicycle repairs.
I have known a group to establish a housing co-op, which is great and all, but that, after around a decade, has housed around 8 people in total, which leaves a very long way to go.
Overall, I am in favour of the idea, but it is easy to see the issues that leave most people stuck in some job that actually pays the rent.
Danterious@lemmy.world 11 months ago
So you are saying that the main barriers are housing and electricity. Ok that makes sense but I suspect that there might be plenty of places where you could first get people in that network to collectively save up to buy plots of land to then eventually build up housing. I just think that their is alot of wasted potential to actually directly support these people more.
GreyShack@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The issue with being poor is that you don’t get to save a lot - if any - whilst you are paying for rent and the basics. That is a large part of the reason that the housing co-op that I mentioned has housed so few after so long.
Yes, in the right conditions it will work, but there are a lot of situations that don’t leave people with access to those conditions.
Kinglink@lemmy.world 11 months ago
If they were able to save up enough to buy land, and build housing… they wouldn’t be poor.
I also don’t think you understand poverty. Almost half of Americas have less than 500 dollars in the bank, and 18 percent have nothing.