‘What’s something that poor people do better than rich people?’ – 19 ways having less money makes life better

The modern world is completely geared towards aspiration: for power, for celebrity and, most of all, for money. But being rich doesn’t make you a superior type of person, and – in many respects – can make you a lot worse.

They’ve been talking about this on the AskReddit page after user Anton_ms06 asked this:

What’s something that poor people do better than rich people?

And lots of people had ideas about they ways in which having no money puts you one step ahead of those with lots of it.

1.

‘Making the most out of very little. Creativity hits different when money’s tight.’
–daisyvalen

2.

‘My grandmother grew up on a farm during the great depression and used to say ‘Use it up, wear it out, just make do, or do without’.’
–Bender_2024

3.

‘Even on a macro scale, for example: India’s space agency sent a probe to Mars for less than the budget of the movie The Martian.’
–jdmb0y

4.

‘Rich people, especially those that grew up rich, don’t understand how to scrap to make a project work. Dated a girl who refused to make a documentary about her dying grandparents because she needed $10,000 and a special camera and crew and mic.

I’m like ‘wtf are you talking about’, and made her entire video with an iPhone, a $20 mic, my grandparents, and a little post editing just to piss her off.’
–Minute_Figure1591

5.

‘I used to deliver pizzas for dominos and I swear to God the best tips I got consistently, were from people in the trailer parks not too far from our store. I wish I was making that up. Some of the loveliest people I’ve ever met.’
–compoundinterest73

6.

‘Poor people are able to better appreciate a lot of things, because they have to go without them.’
–loztriforce

7.

‘Animal bones used to be so cheap until social media invented bone broth. It’s stock! Adding water and maybe some aromatic veggies to bones, then simmering it to extract the flavour is how you make stock. Then some idiot made up a new term for it and suddenly the price of bones skyrocketed.’
–souryellow310

8.

‘Handle adversity.

I’m a pharmacist and I’ve worked in ultra wealthy communities as well as very poor areas. And without question it’s the poor-income folks that are better able to handle when things go wrong. If a drug isn’t available, or there’s a mixup with their prescription, they are much more understanding and reasonable in their responses. The rich people lose their shit at even the most minor inconvenience (it’s not quite ready yet, give me five more minutes).

I’ll take the poor people every day of the week. They are the real ones.’
–tomismybuddy

9.

‘I work in property management and maintenance and you would be surprised how many white collar people can’t figure out the simplest tasks like flipping a breaker, resetting a garbage disposal or plunging a toilet.’
–Wiggleynuts

10.

‘Handle crises in stride. I was homeless at times as a teen and I’m now watching my middle class and rich friends really freak out in midlife. They take every problem or roadblock as a personal offence whereas I’m like, ‘Did I eat dinner tonight? Yeah? Then I’m good. Bad things happen, my dudes’.’
–tacosandtheology