The guys who brought you “The Ghetto Big Mac” have a new video up about the the hilarious and not-so-hilarious realities behind check chasing joints (with guest appearance by yours truly, Ben Popken). Besides the part where Internet Celebrities Rafi and Dallas try to cash an oversized check at one of these places, what I like best about this video is that it actually makes a sound case for check cashing places at times. If there’s no banks around in a poor neighborhood, what other choice do you have? Especially when banks have constructed all sorts of fees to discourage patronage by lower-income customers. Like Dallas says in the vid, “You really know you’ve made it when you move from check cashing fees to ATM fees.”
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@dabusdriver: @linbey: I can’t believe the your arguments.
“it’s hard to argue that they get substantially more support compared to the native-born poor who get support from their vast families all in the US,”
Have you heard of generational poverty? That means that everyone in your immediate family is in the same economically challenged situation. So if the grandmother and mother is on welfare, how can the children depend on them for financial help?
And to say that internet and cell phone service is a luxury is far beyond stupid. Access to information is a necessity, not a luxury; especially if you have school age children as most school require internet use in some capacity. And please don’t say they can use the library because that is not always a viable option.
It is so clear that neither of you have been impoverished. I’ve pulled myself out from poverty, but there are many who are not as fortunate as I was. Climbing the social-economic ladder of this country isn’t nearly as easy as you assume. I hope it doesn’t take an unfortunate turn of events for you both to realize that.
@dabusdriver: I think the mistake you’re making is that you’re lumping all immigrants and all native poors into their respective groups.
Like I said, not all immigrants are economic refugees, and in fact, immigrants often bring wealth with them. And I think you overstate the degree of social mobility among immigrants – it’s clearly more fluid simply because you have a self-selecting sample, but even then, it was never great in an absolute sense, and the leap from first to second generation is diminishing.
But the bigger issue with selecting outliers like immigrants is that every group has them. And if you cherrypicked data with the native poor, you would probably see more income mobility. But they are the exception that proves the rule – for all but the exceptional few, the opportunity for mobility doesn’t exist, or if it did, it’s not realistic.
Give me a break.
Check cashing places are holding poor people down because they spend their money on bling?
How about learning a bit of personal responsibility?
i think some of us are missing the point of this video. i don’t think these guys are blaming check cashing for all the ills of society – but they do an excellent job of portraying what it’s like. how many of us have been in one of these places? how many of us are scared to even go near them for fear of loss of life, limb, or the green handed thru the glass?
the fact is, these places are a central part of the life of many americans & i found the video very informative. are check cashers preying on the poor? i don’t see it that way. however, they are certainly enabling them – just like you enable your 25-yr old son by letting him make $500/wk, live for free in the basement & blow his entire paycheck in a weekend on bars, girls & video games.
i was quite surprised at the reasonable fees, to be perfectly honest. 50¢ for a stamp isn’t bad & the adventurers make an excellent point – whatcha gonna do with the pennies anyway?
does it make sense that someone living paycheck to paycheck buys bling with the $100 left over from their check after they pay the bills? yes. stuff fills a void for us. it makes us feel good inside. it let’s us feel as though our 40+ hrs/wk were “worth it”. even those in the upper class with their million-dollar homes & their brand-new slr’s experience that.
Some people apparently are rather ignorant about money, if they think their taxes are being raised to due “social services” spending. Oil over $100 a barrell? Iraq war the worst kind of money pit? Social Security a looming monstrosity? God, no! It’s the poor kids getting subsidized school lunches who are jacking up MY taxes! If only those brats stopped getting subsidized to the tune of $2 a day, we’d have a balanced budget in no time!
Math is hard, linbey.
@Mina_da_mad_child: Plenty of immigrants have “generational poverty.” You think those poor Mexican migrant workers or Haitian refugees come from wealthy families? Most immigrants who succeed received no help from their grandmother or mother, yet they actually send money back to their parents instead of counting on welfare. Funny how “generational poverty” is conveniently holding back only American poor, but not poor immigrants. Contrary to your offensive and unwarranted condescending assumption, I did once live in impoverished circumstances. I am no longer poor because of hard work (which presumably applies to you too).
@spinachdip: I am not saying that all immigrants are rags to riches stories. I use immigrants as a control group to show that hard work is sufficient for at least some people to pull themselves out of poverty through hard work and other intrinsic factors, despite “society” keeping the rest of the poor down.
Once again, you use the term “self-selecting” as if that invalidates my point. It is actually exactly my point. Some people have the motivation to work hard and succeed, and part of that effort is immigrating to a land with opportunities (the US). Others don’t have the motivation and they stay poor, even if they’re already in the US.
I just checked out their other videos. Genius!
@Ash78: Credit unions are all about people-power. Sell them on that basis (and offer free checking, direct deposit, etc.), and see if people go for it. I don’t know if it was ever tried, but you wouldn’t know if it would work otherwise.
I can’t even get a bank account. (Identity theft. . . don’t ask) So I use check cashing places. Because I have to.
I actually found this video to be condescending.
Oh and Ben – banks take your fucking money too! They just don’t have a nifty color-coded chart on the wall of how badly they’re going to rob you. So. I guess you’re just into ambiguous scrilla fuckery.
Hmmm, people cashing paychecks would seem to contraindicate that the same people are welfare recipients. Really, people, where’s the critical thinking?