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The poor often behave in less capable ways, which can further perpetuate poverty. We hypothesize that poverty directly impedes cognitive function and present two studies that test this hypothesis. First, we experimentally induced thoughts about finances and found that this reduces cognitive performance among poor but not in well-off participants. Second, we examined the cognitive function of farmers over the planting cycle. We found that the same farmer shows diminished cognitive performance before harvest, when poor, as compared with after harvest, when rich. This cannot be explained by differences in time available, nutrition, or work effort. Nor can it be explained with stress: Although farmers do show more stress before harvest, that does not account for diminished cognitive performance. Instead, it appears that poverty itself reduces cognitive capacity. We suggest that this is because poverty-related concerns consume mental resources, leaving less for other tasks. These data provide a previously unexamined perspective and help explain a spectrum of behaviors among the poor. We discuss some implications for poverty policy.
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/341/6149/976
(Score: 2, Insightful) by NPC-131072 on Tuesday November 06 2018, @03:09AM (20 children)
It's not stress, it's stressful "poverty related concerns". Got it!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by sjames on Tuesday November 06 2018, @03:31AM (19 children)
It's not hard to understand. If you're busy trying to figure out how to keep things going when there isn't really enough money to make ends meet (or if you're not sure there's enough), you're not using those cognitive resources for other things.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @03:49AM (18 children)
Nonsense, I know people with middle class incomes who are depressed and constantly in debt because they take 12 vacations a year. In same breath they complain about the Credit Card bill and tell me about their trip to LA next weekend. People who go with me to a nice restaurant, complain about how they lvie paycheck to paycheck and are doled out in thousands of dollars worth of jewlery (I only owe one piece of jewlery, my wedding ring). Peopel who won't go to a $20 a plate dinner with me, because they say they are saving money, and by an $800 hair remover and $150 makeup kits. Stop trying to absolve these people from the responsiblity of their actions. They deserve less money, not more.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @04:10AM (2 children)
Turn the other cheek bud, turn the other cheek.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @05:10AM
Hungry. So, so hungry! The man, Rickson, ran to his storage closet to get some consumables. He used his key to open the door, grabbed a consumable item, and then went into his bedroom to feast upon it. It screamed.
The little boy's screams were so loud and obnoxious that even people living several houses down could hear it. While Rickson thought that screaming so loud just because one was having their anus violated was a bit much, he ignored it and continued with his consumption. Yes, nothing could stand between this man and his feasting! No, rather, no one would dare to try.
Slam! Slam! Slam! Rickson's penis slammed deep into the boy's anus, and his fists similarly slammed into the boy's face without end. Throughout this entire process, the man wore an absolutely disgusting smile on his face, which only served to further amplify the child's terror. Then, when Rickson felt that he had enjoyed the boy's fragile body enough, a loud snapping sound was heard and the little boy would never again utter a sound. Silence.
However, that period of silence was a brief one. You see, Rickson realized that he hungered still, and slowly walked towards the locked closet in which he stored his consumables...
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday November 06 2018, @04:45PM
For $800 he better be turning more than the other cheek!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @04:15AM
You should encourage these people to keep on spending, wildly, in particular on clothes and other high quality consumer small goods.
I call it the shopaholic tax. Eventually they have too much and they (or their heirs?) donate to resale shops (Goodwill, Savers, etc). Often clothes have the original tags still attached (basically unworn/unused). At which point poor and frugal people can buy them for pennies on the dollar.
I attended a memorial service a couple of weeks ago, one of the older folks (fixed income, not rich) came to the cemetery in jeans...and then found out that the following reception was in a venue with a "no jeans" dress code. She found a nice pair of black slacks in a resale shop when driving from one to the other, for something like $4.00, fit her perfectly. Told the story with a big grin over a nice memorial luncheon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @04:53AM (2 children)
Found the impoverished Republican! Personal Responsibility! Just like Goldman-Sacks! And the Trump Foundation! I think the real problem is that you have accumulated such anecdotal evidence. Conservatives are always jealous of the rich, unless they are busy sucking up to them.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @05:13AM (1 child)
Do you honestly think that the average person is good at financial planning?
Whatever your political ideology, if you reach the point of scoffing at the notion of spending one's money wisely, then you're being an idiot. It's true that people aren't poor because of poor financial planning alone, but that is definitely one factor that in the equation.
(Score: 3, Informative) by ikanreed on Tuesday November 06 2018, @03:33PM
It's a trivial factor.
Rent is basically uncontrollable(unless you can get a mortgage which depends on not being poor), and income can be very uncontrollable. The things you can control by budgetting are dwarfed by those two factors. Lots of people spending over half their household income on having a place to live with a family, and no meaningful opportunities for career advancement.
(Score: 4, Informative) by sjames on Tuesday November 06 2018, @06:13AM (6 children)
OTOH, they don't have to think very hard about it if they need to save some bux one month. They're not poor, they're just foolish with money.
The people who don't spend like that and still have to come up with some way to put the landlord off dor 3 days so they vcan pay rent and feed their kids have to expend some real cognitive resources.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @08:14AM (5 children)
They often make themselves debt slaves by being foolish with money. Just because you make a decent amount of money doesn't mean you're not poor.
Also, thinking about how you need to start saving money isn't going to help you much in an emergency if you've been wasting all of your money since then.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @11:22AM (3 children)
I make just over $20k/year, support 4 people, very comfortably, still take vacations and can't think of much I'm lacking. Not worried at all about expenses. My monthly budget is $1400 (half of which goes to insurance) that leaves me about $500/month of fun money. Our only frivolous expense is the internet. We don't go out, but very often we have lots of friends over (and visa versa).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @06:04PM (2 children)
Lol, 700 a month for rent/food for 4 people? Plus vacations and a worry free life? I smell internet level bullshit.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @09:07PM (1 child)
Have cheap house in an inexpensive area of the country. These are not hare to find on zillow.
Eg, https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/TN/fsba,fsbo_lt/house_type/41729445_zpid/53_rid/3-_beds/0-30092_price/0-126_mp/pricea_sort/36.333934,-85.236054,34.8014,-87.696991_rect/8_zm/0_mmm/ [zillow.com]
Housing 20% 360
Food 17% 300
Auto 5% 100
Insurance 32% 650
Debts 0%
Entertainment 0% 1%
Clothing 1% 1%
Savings 0%
Medical/Dental 0% 1% (see ridiculously high insurance rate)
Miscellaneous 26%
School/Child Care 0% 1%
Investments 0%
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @09:41PM
Same AC, replying to myself because no edit feature....
the 1% above should be less than symbol 1%. This budget was found at https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-household-budgetand [valuepenguin.com] I changed it to my own numbers. Also, I don't have a car, but added in the number for the few times when I need to get an uber somewhere. A lot of their categories are so low at my house (less than 1%) we just list under misc expenses.
Last year we went to Yosemite, Yellowstone and Acadia national parks and camped along the way. We saved up money for a year for those trips (rental car).
(Score: 1, Insightful) by VLM on Tuesday November 06 2018, @12:58PM
Being opposed to a debt based lifestyle struggle is Anti Semitic, AC....
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday November 06 2018, @12:41PM
Easy! They are actually extreme savers.
That's well before fake news, so it must be true: the more you spend, the more you save.
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @03:51PM (1 child)
What if those vacations are what keeps them barely functional and somewhat productive? like, If they didn't take them maybe they wouldn't be able to hold the/a job at all. That would make the vacations a legitimate need for them.
There was some research over the years showing workers that didn't consume caffeine, tobacco and (especially) alcohol couldn't hold their jobs for more than a few weeks. Getting drunk by the end of the shift was literally what kept all the long timers around. So many now that people drink and smoke less some folks need to break routines much more often. The 2 vs. 3 days weekend research papers definitely support this claim.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @04:16PM
Even so, it's still not necessary to take expensive vacations that put you in debt. There are cheaper ways to enjoy time off.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Tuesday November 06 2018, @05:40PM
The people you're talking about aren't poor, and neither are the farmers before harvest. As someone above said, stress causes cognitive decline.
The people you're talking about are well off and foolish, not poor.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org