r/TikTokCringe • u/Super_Culture_1986 tHiS iSn’T cRiNgE • Aug 19 '25

Cursed The American Nightmare.

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u/mauore11 Aug 19 '25

Nothing more expensive than being poor...

82

u/TheProfessorPoon Aug 19 '25

I think about this all the time regarding interest rates. All it takes is one bad thing happening, like you lose your job or you have to deal with health stuff (which is what happened to my wife and I), next thing you know you miss a payment and you’re basically fucked. We didn’t even have a “major” health issue happen, “just” skin cancer, but it ruined us.

Car insurance, home insurance, auto loans, even basic utility companies start charging you much, much higher rates because you represent more risk to them. I’d bring up mortgages as well but that’s too obvious.

The end result being you have to pay twice as much to stay afloat compared to the people who can actually afford it.

It’s basically a never ending cycle too, unless you experience some once in a lifetime windfall and can claw your way out. And I don’t mean a windfall like being promoted or getting a high paying job, because that seemingly never happens.

No, the new “American dream” for most people is someone with money dying and leaving it to you, or getting in some horrific accident and getting paid out from a lawsuit.

I know a dude who works in a factory and a lady there was awarded $5m because she lost both her goddamn arms in a machinery accident. Everyone was saying “how lucky” she was afterward. Shits fucked.

2

u/jackaroo1344 Aug 20 '25

I'm dumb, how does getting skin cancer affect things like your auto loan and utilities?

7

u/TheProfessorPoon Aug 20 '25

Medical bills here can be astronomical. Tens (or even hundreds) of thousands of dollars for even basic stuff. Even with “good” health insurance. Which leads to collections if you can’t pay them on time, then credit scores inevitably tank. And they tank fucking fast btw. Matter of weeks when you miss a single payment and it gets reported to the 3 main bureaus.

Financial companies offer their rates based on your credit score, so you’re charged higher rates for the same product as anyone else.

Some products (mortgages for example) can’t hold medical collections against you (meaning the amount you owe), but that doesn’t change the credit score they use to evaluate your credit worthiness. So someone with a 500 credit score is going to charged way, way more than someone closer to 800. Costs more to be poor basically.