[mikefertynnz]

Ben is right about a car is just about cheaper than public transportation. In my city, public transportation isn't very useful for things like grocery shopping (it will get you to work just fine). Are you suppoed to bring 10 bags of groceries onto the bus?

I simply can't imagine life without a car. I'm willing to sacrifice certain things to have a car. What I see in my city is people who can't sacrifice taking drugs to own a car. Most men who ride the bus do so because they spend their money on drugs. Women are a different story, many of them have kids, and can't simply afford a car.

I grew up poor, real poor. We couldn't even afford to eat fast food more than once a month. Which is good actually. I don't eat fast food at all now days. It's too expensive. You save a lot more money eating at home. And fast food is poison as well.

I made a determination early in life not to be poor. And I was willing to make sacrifices to achieve this. But as mentioned above, most people don't have the intelligence or skills some of us have. I happen to be very smart and skilled. I just lack confidence (hence why I'm still underachieving big time), and lacked initial capital.

Another distinction is most people lack impulse control. This is more important than intelligence when it comes to getting out of the slums. I've seen some pretty dumb people do fairly well for themselves and live in decent neighborhoods. You have to resist that urge to go down to 7-11 and by a 40, or chips/soft drinks.

So what am I saying here? There are options. People don't have to be poor. But it takes serious impulse control and discipline which most people don't have.