Have you ever considered the cost of being poor? The thing with being poor is that no one wants to be poor. Have you thought about the cost of getting things in larger quantities as opposed to one item at a time? You save a lot of money from being able to afford commodities in large quantities.

Now let’s focus on the cost of living in terms of economic standards. The monetary cost and the opportunity cost. As a student of economics, I assume you know the “monetary cost is the cost of the commodity, and the opportunity cost is the alternative forgone.”  It costs too much to prioritize health care when the economic situation in the country is bad. 

The system is designed to make sure a poor person remains poor. You pay more interest for a service that could have cost you less if you had money. Banks don’t recognize you as a product-bringing customer and would charge you various monthly fees that put you in the red and keep you there.

Going back to buying supplies, how would a poor person with no mobility or even a good storage system like a refrigerator deal with buying food in bulk? The less money you have, the more time-consuming everyday activities are; you spend more time waiting at a bus stop or a public hospital.

Imagine having to negotiate through life with decision fatigue. You always have to decide what is more important, especially having to choose between diapers or having a nice meal.

Everything costs more when you have to wait to fix a problem. That includes buying cheaper equipment to fix a problem until they have to be replaced frequently with equally cheap materials.

You can barely invest your money or time into anything.  A quick fix feels better without having to weigh all his options. Always having to pass on long-term deals for short-term gains.

You’re prone to being scammed when you’re poor, always trying to move from one get-rich scheme to another. It is almost impossible to network with the right connections because they cannot afford to be around the socially rich/connected circles.

Breaking the cycle of poverty is important as the government needs to.

• Increase access to affordable housing, health care,  and education.
• Implement financial inclusion initiatives(e.g., microloans).
• Provide job employment and skull acquisition opportunities.

Being poor is indeed expensive. The cumulative cost of considering what is more important between basic needs is a barrier to economic mobility. By recognizing and advocating for policy changes to improve the lives of poor citizens, we can become a more socially equitable society.