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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: 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....