30 Things Poor People Could Afford To Do And Have, Until The Rich Folks Ruined It, As Shared Online
Let's admit right away that customs and fashion are definitely a two-way street. Throughout the centuries of human history, the rich and famous often came up with something that "mere mortals" then happily adopted. Even if following these trends turned out to be detrimental to the state of their wallet.
But there are many reverse examples - when the powers that be were inspired by the aesthetics and hobbies of ordinary people. And I must say, far from always has this inspiration led to something good. Often the opposite happens. And so, in this viral thread on the AskReddit community, netizens recall cases when moneyed people adopted the hobbies of the poor, thus nearly ruining it for them.
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Quiet out of the way country cabins sitting by lakes.
Now they are over priced Airbnbs.
And way too many have been built on the previously unoccupied vicinity of the nice, private, out of the way, and QUIET location of the cabin. Overbuilding and overdevelopment, as well as putting the cabins into some company’s short term rentals list can 100% ruin the peaceful atmosphere of a beloved vacation spot.
Being able to afford a house. And even crazier it was usually on only one income.
No apartments either hud is a mess after covid and average wait list is 2 years. I live on ssi I can't pay 600 dollars a month and pay bills and I don't qualify for elderly housing yet.
Food banks. My local food bank put out a news article basically saying that rich people need to stop using the food bank as a “life hack” to lower their grocery bills.
How does that work? In the UK you need a referral from someone like the council, social worker or a health professional. They look at your circumstances, you can't just turn up- I think they need to switch to doing something like that.
Perhaps the classic example in this situation is sports. More precisely, professional sports. From a truly popular hobby accessible to almost everyone, in a little over a century, sport has turned into a multi-billion dollar business, becoming, in fact, a kind of offshoot of show business. Do you want a good example? Please - according to the results of 2022, as IMDb states, global gross box office takings reached $25.9 billion.
At the same time, during the same period, the NFL alone reported a total revenue of approximately $18.6 billion. And that's just one league in one single sport! Of course, you'll be happy to throw the ball with friends or kids in the park for the weekend, but then in the evening you will still sit in front of the TV and turn on the next NFL game. But, you see, it will still be essentially different sports.
Thrifting
This one is one that is personal to me I have found much of my household goods this way now it's just cheaper to go to Walmart.
Ebay.
It used to be so useful to get all kinds of cheap or unique things. Then more and more big commercial sellers joined the club and eventually ebay itself forgot about what and who made their platform a success in the first place.
I feel like Etsy is going the same way (well, etsy wasn't always cheap, but it was unique, and you see a lot more big commercial sellers on there selling the same tat as opposed to the handmade crafts etc it started out for)
It’s interesting reading all of the responses here. Really the underlying issue is, you guessed it - the Internet.
Lots of the things here used to be cheap because the market for them was inefficient… e.g. they were things only known by people in certain communities (certain cuts of meat, thrift stores, certain travel destinations, etc.)
Basically the internet enabled the masses to “discover” all of these things and drive demand, and thus the price, up for all of them.
"The commercialization of sports began in the second half of the 20th century in Europe and North America, mainly with the development of television, but the main work was, of course, the internet," says Michael Spivakovsky, a sports journalist and YouTube blogger from Ukraine, to whom Bored Panda reached out for a comment. "It sounds unbelievable, but when advertising appeared on the jerseys of some soccer teams in Europe in the '70s, it was seriously dubbed a 'disgrace' to the sport. Today, advertising space is even sold on the inside of jerseys."
“On the other hand, the gap between ordinary people and professional athletes has now become absolutely incredible. If half a century ago you supported a local team as 'the next door guys', today there is a clear gradation: there are amateur sports, semi-professional, like student sports, and on the top of it there are professional leagues, and it's a completely different level of fitness and financial power."
"Some people like it - after all, what, in fact, is the difference between the Super Bowl and, say, the next Marvel blockbuster? Is it the plot denouement - in sports, unlike cinema, it can be unpredictable. Many are upset that the sport has lost its roots, has lost spiritual connection with the common people it all came from. But a trend is a trend - and no one can reverse it," Michael summarizes.
Many ethnic foods in the US. The really tasty stuff might be dirt-cheap and off the beaten path until the yuppies and hipsters get wind of it, then it’s found in every strip mall at an inferior quality for $30 a plate.
In fact, we are seeing a spiral movement. First, some trend or hobby appears among ordinary people. Then it becomes popular, gaining more and more followers. Then big money comes, the trend gets gradually commercialized - and social media only accelerates this process at times more. Business then replaces singles, and soon this social phenomenon becomes another commercial industry. Only to eventually give way to something new in human minds and hearts...
Burning Man, Collectable Card Games, Retro Video Games, GOING TO CONCERTS...like seriously, just pick a hobby. Once the re-sellers get into it, prices go through the roof, and nobody can afford to do anything.
Yep tech bros and rich people ruined Burning Man. They helicopter in to their luxury "glamping" sites.
Buying a “fixer upper” home and spending weekends working on it. I was really looking forward to that.
Bought one and found out it WAAAAY more problems than an easy diy aesthetics update. Foundation repair, new roof and new driveway alone cost near 20k. Nevermind inside repairs, updates and painting. ALWAYS get your foundation inspected prior to buying. It is not a cheap fix.
After all, such is our life, and it has rarely happened that ordinary people, having stood in the way of the colossal business machine, have succeeded in this confrontation. So each of us actually has two paths. The first is to accept it all and try to enjoy even the commercialized version of our hobby. The second - to oppose somehow, and who knows - if we're lucky, then publish a book about the story of our success, earn a lot of money and become famous... damn, it seems that there is only one path after all. Okay, if you know other ways, please let us know in the comments below!
Living in warehouses in the industrial, rundown side of town.
Because if you're an "artist" it is hip to live in a loft downtown which costs more than an apartment.
Carhartt. Blue collar workers needed the durability, then celebrities wore “fashionably” and drove up the price
Yep dickies too. Lot's of durable clothes that were designed for physical labor.
Lobster was originally food feed to prisoners
My friend's grampa was from Newfoundland. They were poor so they had to eat lobster every day.
Eating salmon. Fish used to be poor man's food. Now you pay absurd amounts for the tiniest piece.
Grew up and still live in the NW where salmon is common. It's never been a poor man's food, unless that poor man caught it. Salmon has always been a premium fish, especially wild sockeye and chinook. But even then, I wouldn't consider it expensive. You can buy a full, large salmon for under $20. That will feed like 5-6 people.
Proper local pubs, affected by expanding cities ( Manchester in my case). Ruined by greedy breweries trying to attract upmarket clientele, or selling out for demolition and the building of apartments that locals cannot afford…
I hate serving so many boutique drinks now 😆 it was kinda fun at first when a few would pop up in work. Then fast forward to the past few years and the whole damn fridge is full of names no one really knows, creaming soda flavoured beer. Hipster IPAs and the one that boggled me the most 😆 the revival of gin and aperol, but to be fair it was fun to actually use the bottle after 20 yr of that sitting on shelves all over the country. But now there’s more than 50 gins and then there’s vodqueila, teqbourbon and omg
Fajitas. I remember being able to get skirt steak really cheap and sometimes for free.
Skirt steak used to be an inexpensive cut of beef back in the day, but needed some care to cook it because it could be tough. Then the era of TV chefs began and those chefs showed the world that you could make skirt steak tender and juicy when it was made right. People who had never had it before, loved it. And just like everything else, when it became more popular and demand was great, prices went up. Now, skirt steak is actually somewhat difficult to find in the grocery store because people buy it up so fast. 😕
Camping.
Many private campgrounds require you to tell them the age of your RV. If it's older they'll refuse your reservation.
No, exactly the opposite. First, this isn't camping, this is staying in an RV park. It's the old, barely running RVs that people would bring to these parks that would break down and cause problems. Combine that with the last 15 years of homeless people buying $1400 40' motorhomes (12 meters, 213 bananas) to live in that they would let break down in these parks thinking they couldn't be evicted, and you get RV park owners setting standards on what they let into the park. It's not the rich people who ruined this one, it's the poor people who did this time. And get out of the RV park. That's not camping. Go find a state park or national forest. That's camping.
Blue-collar residential neighborhoods in the city
Rich people themselves did not ruin that. Mortgage lenders and appraisers did. With a help from a few of their friends..
Florida beaches. It used to be a cheap thing to do with the family. Mom and pop hotels and local diners. Now it is $300/hotels with $5 coffee. Parking is expensive and there is little beach access. Kinda sucks to see it happen.
Unrestricted land
Everything gets an HOA now, and they try to force you into their jurisdiction.
My family fought an HOA targeting my grandmother's house. She had lived there for 10 years before the HOA was even an idea, or the new area with big houses was cleared for construction before that.
We ended up having Rock in her houses, skirting, and rock in under her deck due to not having the money to fight an HOA she never signed on to.
If an HOA comes out where I live (which might happen in the next 15 years), I will fight them tooth and nail for spite alone.
I don't get the rock comments. were they like throwing rocks at her house or something?
Champion brand clothes. I had a lot when I was a kid because it was the cheapest possible and now all that s**t is considered “vintage”
Life. "poor" people I knew were always happy with the simple pleasures. Now even this simple pleasures are almost impossible to afford unless they're necessary and your break your back to pay for them so you almost resent them. Rich people are literally ruining life.
Football (soccer). It used to be a working class sport played by and watched by working class people. Then money came into it and the working class was priced out of watching.
nah, anyone can watch it, I just think it's f*****g ridiculous how much these teams spend on players. Also, you're supposed to support your "local" team.. yet.. none of your team is local anymore because they paid like 30 million to get a player from the other side of the country or some s**t.
Cheap authentic Mexican tacos.
I have learned how to recreate high end menus thanks to my son and sister (lost my sense of taste and smell due to Covid) so why go out when I can do it at a fraction of the cost. *L*
McDonald’s. It was originally a place for a quick eat because it was cheap, but now it’s just mid food for high prices.
Off cuts of meat.
Note: this post originally had 35 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Hawaii also. Rich people bought gigantic fancy homes while the rent for the natives who originally lived there is climbing higher and higher, and they can barely afford to live in houses
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Load More Replies... Remarkable how many people are defending the way things suck nowadays.
maybe because some of these posts are talking out of their poopholes. Dont tell me "concerts" are too expensive. Ofcourse if you're dirtpoor you cant afford, but you couldnt 20 years ago either. I paid 25 euro for a fantastic concert 2 weeks ago.
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Who voted for the dissolution of safety nets and unfettered capitalism in the 80s?!
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Hawaii also. Rich people bought gigantic fancy homes while the rent for the natives who originally lived there is climbing higher and higher, and they can barely afford to live in houses
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Load More Replies... Remarkable how many people are defending the way things suck nowadays.
maybe because some of these posts are talking out of their poopholes. Dont tell me "concerts" are too expensive. Ofcourse if you're dirtpoor you cant afford, but you couldnt 20 years ago either. I paid 25 euro for a fantastic concert 2 weeks ago.
Load More Replies... Who voted for the dissolution of safety nets and unfettered capitalism in the 80s?!
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