When you’re poor, you do what you must to get by. Poor people throughout the ages developed innovative solutions to their poverty, using scraps to build mansions and relying on “unfavorable” foods for sustenance.
That is until the rich discover their secrets and commandeer poor folks’ ingenuity to stuff their pockets.
Here are the best “poor people” solutions that no longer work now that the rich got their greedy hands on them.
Warehouse Living
Poor folks used to rely on abandoned warehouses in questionable parts of town for shelter until the rich decided living like a pauper was “en vogue.”
Affluent investors transformed the old warehouses into trendy housing and offered their rich kids the option to live like the poor for a hefty rent payment.
Etsy
Big corporations couldn’t stand a platform where regular folks sold competing creations. Although you can still find individual creators on Etsy, it’s been inundated with cheap stuff from overseas, making it ever harder to support small creators.
eBay
eBay used to be the best place to sell your old stuff. Now, most sellers are business owners rather than individuals, and it’s harder than ever to get good deals for both buyers and sellers.
Blue Collar Neighborhoods
Most cities used to have affordable neighborhoods where the working class could find housing, but investors saw the land and couldn’t allow people with low incomes to have nice things.
Gentrification destroyed these neighborhoods, and affordable housing was replaced with “luxury” apartments costing four times as much.
Quiet Cabins
People experiencing poverty used to vacation in quiet cabins in non-touristy towns on little lakes. However, the Airbnb craze destroyed many of these hidden enclaves, morphing everything into short-term rentals that the poor can no longer afford.
Airbnb
Speaking of Airbnb – it used to be a cheap alternative to hotel rooms until the wealthy investors saw the potential profits.
Now, a quiet neighborhood rental is even more expensive than a hotel room. Airbnb is slowly destroying the housing inventory as investors rush to convert homes into short-term rentals.
Fixing Old Houses
Buying an old house and slowly fixing it used to be a solid path to homeownership for the lower middle class. Unfortunately, rich folks realized they could make massive profits by buying up old houses and modernizing them with the cheapest interiors.
Not only did they destroy a path to homeownership, but they also destroyed the charm of millions of houses that only needed a little tender loving care to return to their former glory.
Van Life
Millions of poor people lived in their cars before rich kids made it cool. Vans, tiny homes, and RV park space are more expensive than ever as rich people want to experience “rugged living.”
Thrifting
Thrift stores were great places to get name-brand clothing and housing essentials for less. That is until rich kids decided thrifting was “cool.”
Now, it’s often cheaper to shop at Walmart than the thrift store.
Farmer’s Markets
The farmer’s market used to bring farm fresh produce straight to consumers. Now, the biggest markets are filled with artisan creators selling high-end junk.
Festivals
Music festivals used to be the mecca of the counterculture, but now they’re all geared to stuck-up rich people. Even the quintessential punk festival, the Warped Tour, sold out to its corporate overlords.
All the Food
Many poor people’s foods morphed into rich people’s delicacies over the years, making it harder and harder for the poorest people to feed themselves.
Things like crawfish, bones, organs, beaks, feet, and wings used to be tossed aside and sold for cheap, but now trendy gastropubs use these items to create culinary delights for rich palates, pumping up the price for everyone.
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