This is HN. Nobody here understands how "plastic crap from China" is what keeps poor people alive.

There are folks who earn $1000 per month who also occasionally want to buy a birthday gift for their nephew. I advise everyone to just occasionally go to a budget store and walk around looking at the customers.

interestingly though, unless it’s plastic clothes, anything made of plastic doesn’t fall into the needs category since you can’t eat it and it isn’t durable enough to make a house out of. so what cheap plastic brush is keeping people alive?

I'm sure you'd be annoyed if poor people couldn't buy or use brushes, and their quality of live would decrease. Amusing that 'plastic=wasteful purchase" de facto in your mind (for the purposes of this thread)

stuff from plastic/oil-derivated products in dollar stores.

cutlery, toothbrush, sponges, cleaning stuff, garbage bags, pen/glue/notebooks/glue (if you want your kids to go to school), basic self-care things (hairbands, razors etc., if you want a job), bandages and a score of health stuff, screen protectors (gotta make your phone last, that's how you get jobs), batteries. and then some toys for your kids to keep them busy because you will be working a lot...

The older I get the more I appreciate that those proverbs aren't just rhetorical.

I always assumed people would learn from history, because everyone knows that proverb. And yet now as I'm pushing 40 it seems more a warning, people will refuse to learn from history, and they will repeat it. So be as prepared as you can.

If you read more about the guy who initially came up with that quote, you'll find that he himself was a terrible example of "learning from history".

George Santayana? Can you elaborate a bit?