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this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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If you make minimum wage in the city I live in you either live with your parents, have multiple roomates, or live on the street.
Right, but you don’t have to live in that city. You have the choice to move somewhere else! Prisoners don’t have that choice.
I don't because I make well above minimum wage but you're making uprooting your life and moving sound easier than it. It costs thousands of dollars to move to a new city, even more if you don't have friends or family to stay with until you get established. Good luck setting that much aside when you're barely surviving.
I’m not saying it’s easy! I’m saying it’s possible.
Having family and family obligations is still your choice. Many people walk away from all that because it’s unbearable to them. A prisoner doesn’t have that option: they’re stuck with whoever their cellmates are, no matter what.
I honestly don't get all these people downvoting the general sentiment that a prisoner is, in fact, imprisoned. A free person on the other hand, is not.
No one here is denying that being poor or homeless makes it extremely hard to really do anything, that's not the point. The point is that no matter how poor or homeless a person is, they still retain the freedom of choice regarding what to do when they wake up the next morning.
you sound like you have never lived in true poverty
Is that the poverty only experienced by a true Scotsman?
I’ve never had to live on the street, if that’s what you’re asking. I was raised by a single father. We had as many as 4 roommates at various times, including alcoholics and drug addicts. I’ve had to call the police on some of them. I’ve had to stay at my grandparents’ while my dad drove across the country as a salesman just to pay the bills.
I dropped out of high school at age 16 and only managed to go back and finish in my 30s. I got into university and graduated with a degree, thanks to generous government loans and grants. Now I got my first job post-graduation working in a mail room at age 41.
Was my life easy? No. But I wasn’t living in a slum in central Africa drinking contaminated water and suffering from Guinea worm disease. I think anyone in North America who grew up in a working class home is a long, long way from that kind of poverty.
Why didn't your father simply move then? What I was trying to say is that being poor isn't as easy and free as you make it sound. I couldn't visit any nice place ever when I was at my lowest. In fact I remember being rammed to the ground by police because I couldn't buy a tram ticket to school and took it illegally anyway. Most days there was nothing I could do other then sit in my flat, sometimes without power or warm water. Eventually I was days away from ending up on the street. I would have welcomed a Norwegian prison cell with open arms and i think your comment downplays the horrors of absolute poverty. Especially considering that in a lot of these fancy prison countries you are actually allowed to leave prison during the day, because they are about reintegration rather then punishment.
My dad moved a lot actually. He lived all over the country. He moved to be close to his parents (my grandparents) who helped raise me.
I’m sorry you experienced the hardships you did. Are you saying you’d rather do a 10 year prison sentence in Norway instead of the poverty you experienced on the street? That’s pretty unfathomable to me.
Anyway, I never said anything about it being “free and easy.” Life is hard. But being in prison is neither free nor easy, even in a fancy Norwegian prison.
Yea I would have rather been in prison. There is food and medical care in prison. Poverty kills. I was also lucky enough to have an awesome grandmother to prevent the worse :). Also I want to say that I would never start a 'who has it worse' competition, but I thought my experience could be valuable to my point. I'm glad that you made it out and are doing good now, cheers.
Thanks! I’m glad you’re doing better now too!
Moving is expensive. If you barely scrape by, this id not an option for the vast majority of these people.