SPENT is a game that allows a person to make decisions concerning money to get through the month. It gives people an outlook of how difficult it can be to make it through the month with a low amount of income. It gives people a new outlook on poverty and why people in those positions make the decisions they do.
During the SPENT game, I had to make a series of decisions on how to spend my money. I played the SPENT game twice, the first time was just to get an understanding of the game and the second time I took notes about my decisions. I made it through the month each time but with very little money left and rent was due the next day. The game starts off with a choice of job, health insurance, and housing. For my job, I chose “2nd Shift”
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I believe that all of the myths the author discussed, are common beliefs to most people. We stereotype people based off of their wealth even though those stereotypes do not reign true a majority of the time. I will admit that many of the myths the author discussed were common beliefs to me before reading the article and playing the game SPENT. After playing the game and reading the article, it gave me a new outlook on people in poverty. It helped me to see why some families living in poverty make the decisions that they do. The decision is not always ideal but sometimes it is just what needs to be done. In the game, I learned that when a person is in poverty, they have to make some very tough decisions. Many of those decisions could be between money and family. The article discusses how the parents of a family in poverty usually have to choose between going to work and going to events or volunteering at school. Although they may want to go, they need to go to work to make money and provide for their family. According to the article, parents of a family in poverty are less likely to attend the school events “not because they care less about education, but because they have less access to school involvement than their wealthier peers” (Gorski). Although in the game I did not have to make a decision about going to …show more content…
One topic that we discussed that can be related to the game and article is stratification. Stratification is a system of inequality. One type of system of inequality there is are class systems. The class system breaks down an income of a family into upper class, lower-upper class, upper-middle class, middle class, working class, and poverty. The game lets a person make decisions during the month and allows them to see what it would be like to live in one of those classes, particularly in poverty. Then, the article discusses poverty and the myths people have about it and the realities of it. The last concept that can be related to the game and article is labeling theory. Labeling theory states that a person will act based off the way they are labeled. Many people with that label will act in a certain way but not by choice. For example, people in poverty may be perceived as not as hard working or smart in school, but they usually just do not have as many opportunities as others because they go to schools that have less funding.
The SPENT game and article helped me get a new understanding of people in poverty. The SPENT game showed me ways that people in poverty have to make difficult decisions, many happening to be between money and family. The article helped to explain myths people have about poverty and what the realities
Spend is an online game simulation that is used to teach and raise awareness about people in poverty and who are homeless. This game allows you to see what some people have to go through in order to survive and make ends meet in a month on such little pay. You start by choosing your job, and once you have your job you are given three hundred and six dollars a week depending on your job and a thousand dollar budget. Each day you are faced with a challenge in which you must decide where your money is best spent. Throughout the month you must pay bills, get groceries, take care of your children or child, and handle any unexpected event that may be thrown your way, such as like home repairs. The game allows you to feel how stressful it is trying to choose what is important and how it can take a toll on your Heath. This simulation allowed me
Unfortunately, I was surprised of the excessive amounts of money spent on myself alone throughout these 30 days. In addition, I was not expecting I would spend so much on clothes and food. I felt as if I did not spend as much
The second person is a friend name Mirielle. She works for two days in a week, she gets 280 dollars every week she calculates her expenses using the pie chart. Every month she paid car insurance as well as medical bills, she has a car every two weeks she buys gas. However, she still uses the public transportation to go to school. Although she uses the pie chart she doesn’t end up following it, the only time she takes her time to calculate her spending it when she knows, she does not want the item. If she spends her money on it will be
In this paper I will be talking about the poverty simulation that we had done for class. I will be talking about how it connects to class, my role, and my fake family that I had worked with during the simulation, and my views of poverty after finishing the simulation. Poverty means something different to everyone and I feel like this simulation was a very good way to show how everyday people can struggle with money, kids, and finding resources that they might be able to utilize to benefit themselves.
For example, you can spend your money the way you want to spend it. If you want to buy a trampoline, you
What would I not spend money on? Everyone has disagreements. Some people spend money on car and boats. That is just not me. I
For example, I went to the mall three times in a row. Consequently, I was depressed because I spent plenty of money in those days. Effectively, I don’t want to go shopping in a while. As a result, I had fun buying clothes ;on the other hand, I didn’t have any money left. In conclusion, I need to start earning money to go once again.
The culture poverty is defined as social theory that is based on the concept that the poor have unique value system and that the poor remain in poverty because of their adaptation to the burdens of poverty. (Wikipedia, 2010), but does the culture of poverty actually exist or is it just a popular concept?
It seems that the writer of this essay focus on social change and social attitudes in the culture of poverty. They’re trying to correct the attitude that people have towards individual that they need to be corrected because I was assuming of wrong with them due to unfortunate events that occur that made them financially unstable. I think that the author I have some valid points to what they’re saying mean any one of us could end up homeless if we really think about it? You could move to a new city lose your job without notice and if you do not have enough money saved you could be stuck there without a job and without gainful employment you’ll lose your residence.
A vicious cycle that creates depression and is the coping mechanism. Eventually after all my purchases have been made, I realize, this is meaningless. Only if I knew that this was slowly destroying me, I would’ve stopped and saved some money.
The first main idea presented in The Working Poor is the concept of poverty being a culture of itself—like being Greek or being Hispanic. Shipler and many other experts that study poverty believe the theory that poverty follows a cycle and that that cycle after being passes from one generation to another and another becomes a culture—a way of life. Furthermore, to understand the theory of the culture of poverty, a scholar must first understand what poverty is and whom it impacts. The definition of poverty according to Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman, “the condition of not having enough money to buy things that are considered necessary and desirable (p. 25). The problem of poverty impacts roughly 11.3 percent of the United States who live below the poverty line (Shipler, p 9). Shipler claims that poverty happens in a cycle and that the cycle eventually becomes multi-generational; Shipler calls this phenomenon the culture of poverty. The culture of poverty is based on the idea that from generation to generation parents are learning attitudes of hopelessness, acceptance, and despair about their economic situation and then teaching their children these attitudes and values. Many issues contribute to the culture of poverty however, Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman claims that social isolation is one of the key points of the cycle and the culture continuing over multi-generations (p. 568). People who live in poverty have few contacts who are not living in poverty
As we are approaching this holiday season, the urge of spending money unveils before us. Money is an evil thing that controls every living soul. That little ounce of self-control you thought you had, boom, GONE. Not only is spending money during the holiday season a given, most people still have struggled with budgeting outside any special events. Of course, going broke is not the ideal way of things. Here is a step by step procedure on how to ruin your life and go broke, you’re welcome.
In the first element of this assignment, we were instructed to record our weekly spending. If you refer to my appendix you can see an organized spreadsheet of every item I purchased for the week of 9/13-9/19. The way I spent my money over the course of just a week was a real eye opener for me. Nearly all my spending was on discretionary items such as fast food and clothing. I consider fast food discretionary because the week before this assignment I went grocery shopping and had food at home. I also did not need the clothing items I purchased, they were more of a material want. The only non-discretionary purchase I made was on packaging items such as boxes, envelopes, tape, and printer ink. I consider these items non-discretionary because
Like a cycle poverty surrounds us. Starting with the rich man and ending with the poor, it runs and reruns on how greed is changes the lives of the inhabitants of Earth. In this poster I tried to show the different ways it affects different people and how that impacts the world in a more broad spectrum. From this activity, I learned that it is difficult to use one image to represent something as versatile as poverty, and that their are many aspects to poverty. Everybody has a different viewing of poverty. Some people see it only as the physical, and some can see the spiritually, and different people view it at a different level. Teens can help solve this problem through volunteering. Eventually, our teenagers are going to be the new leaders of the world, and we will ave to pass on the torch. If, they already engage in helping the needing, our future generation will understand of there importance of helping the poor. In Unit 3, the theme is “Be Faithful”. Yes, we are in for a long ride that may or may not
For thousands of people in the United States, poverty is a real life obstacle. People in poverty live pay check to pay check, and several of them rely on aids such as food stamps and welfare. Furthermore, families go hungry and can’t pay their bills, which presents them with family conflict and stress. In the game Spent, these issues bring themselves to our attention, and the player is faced with dilemmas thousands of people face on a day to day basis in the real world.