>...when trying to estimate and model cost of living, assuming that everyone was sexually assaulted or traumatized so badly that they can never live with another is not useful.

I'm not assuming this of people, but that's quite an extreme projection you're making... Rather I'm stating that telling people to find roommates or rent a room is generally bad advice, if they're not first time renters then it is reasonable to assume they have valid reasons, that should be respected at face value, to not live in communal environments. Modeling the cost of living around communal living environments is ignoring the reality of how people want to live on a fundamental level. What people freely choose to do is different than what people with only bad options do. Communal environments are notorious for the factors I mentioned above, and many people refuse to deal with that, at great cost to themselves.

>find it odd how you’re finding rare, negative edge cases that don’t disprove my point.

My point is that 37k is insufficient for a single person to live independently in many, many, cities. 74k is also insufficient to raise a family, hence the growing movement of child free people.. Snide paternalistic advice like get roommates, get a cheaper phone/car/internet/etc is insulting and blaming the poor for being being poor. If you'd like to give free financial advice, and are qualified too do so, I can get you in touch with an organization offering these services in your community. If not, your arguments come across as made in bad faith. I've given you reasons why these common pieces of advice aren't always helpful, in good faith.

>I’m not saying that every single person can get internet for less than $100. I’m saying it’s unreasonable to assume $100 for budgeting purposes. In the rare situation where the only option for internet is $100 and one must have internet the systemic solution isn’t to pay the person an extra $100, the solution is to reduce the cost of internet. Rewarding the exploitative company charging $100/month only makes things worse within the system.

Okay, but hypothetical person needs internet today and telling them they shouldn't be paid more because the government should instead make internet cheaper is, absurd. It does nothing to help them and marginalizes their problem. If the government can't regulate ISPs like utilities what reason do poor people have to expect relief in the form of government aid? Just. Pay. People. More. 44% of households spend 100 and less per month on cable internet[] which in many places is the only option outside of dsl.

>Similarly with phones. $100/month or $1200/year is a poor assumption for someone who needs their salary to go towards more important things. In 2019 I bought a new iPhone6 from Walmart for $100 with a no contract prepaid mobile plan for $20/month. Annualized costs of only $340. I cracked and scratched the screen but if I had had to replace it I would have spent an additional $100.

That's great. But we can't assume people made a bad choice to lock themselves into an expensive phone contract, rather we should give them the benefit of the doubt and recognize that most people are not paid enough to live a dignified existence. What is someone who lost their job to do about their contract? What was affordable yesterday may not be tomorrow. This type precarity makes people act rashly.[0] I'm really trying to focus on the types of situations that poor people find themselves in, not the nuances of their budget. $100 less on internet and cell isn't world changing.

>For “normal” society and to understand people’s experiences I think it’s valuable to model what is typical and then use that as a baseline to plan protection for edge cases. In my head I’m thinking “What should we plan to fix this?” Planning and modeling with assumptions that edge cases are most common means that our mean values will be way off and we’ll have wasted resources.

We are already wasting resources everywhere. We should plan to fix expensive housing, healthcare, transportation, telecommunications. there's no political will from establishment politicians. In the mean time let's have some humanity and help people instead of just talking about it and sending out the occasional pittance.

[...your other comments about how much people should spend on phones here]

*You're way to focused on the phones. The point is everyone is an edge case somehow. Planning for averages forces more people to run into more edge cases. Say hypothetical person is now paying $50 for internet and $50 for their cell a month. What say you now?*

[] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1034487/united-states-mo...

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5422783/

Tldr:

You're not putting yourself in the shoes, nor the mindset of a poor person. Try to do that. When the next meal, or bed is uncertain thinking rationally is hard. It's easy to point at a hypothetical budget and say you can do better. It's another thing to walk in the shoes of someone who's not as intelligent, gifted, connected, wealthy, or whatever as you.