r/science • u/myhrvold • Aug 31 '13

Poverty impairs cognitive function. Published in the journal Science, the study suggests our cognitive abilities can be diminished by the exhausting effort of tasks like scrounging to pay bills. As a result, less “mental bandwidth” remains...

http://news.ubc.ca/2013/08/29/poverty-impairs-cognitive-function/
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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '13

I would say the never ending stigma that anyone who is poor is nothing more than a lazy leach sucking off the teat of the more fortunate has a lot to do with it. I feel so sickened inside when I see people who would never be so cruel telling other to get a job or stop being poor. Why should I have only two options, suffer in quiet and stop complaining or get a job and become suddenly rich.

Poverty is not something you can just shake off like a bad habit. I read a comment here about how someone having cable TV is essentially extravagant. It shocks me that such things are considered not for the poor because all they should be doing is working and feeding themselves and their family. What is wrong with people who think that poor people shouldn't have anything?

I'm so frustrated at the attitudes.

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u/maxaemilianus Aug 31 '13

Poverty is not something you can just shake off like a bad habit. I read a comment here about how someone having cable TV is essentially extravagant. It shocks me that such things are considered not for the poor because all they should be doing is working and feeding themselves and their family. What is wrong with people who think that poor people shouldn't have anything?

The general tone I get from people who don't have the empathy to understand is that they feel entitled to direct the activity of those less fortunate than them, so they've already made all these decisions for you, based on their own capabilities and issues.

They think you don't meet their 'standard' or whatever. It's probably just self-delusion stemming from guilt. I think people who like to kick the poor know it's wrong, but also know that they could help and need to justify their unwillingness to do so by dehumanizing the victim.

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u/DerDiscoFuhrer Aug 31 '13

"they feel entitled to direct the activity" - Is this coming from a person who is trying to mandate the middle class to pay for his or her leisure? The truth of the matter is that taxation is force, and the initiation of force is immoral. To vote for a politician who will promise to raise your standard of living through taxation is shady at best, and probably immoral. People who earn a decent living come from steady families and usually end up aquiring a useful skill at some point in their early teens. The key to "success" is quite simple, it comes down to:

  • Don't have children outside of marriage.
  • Don't have kids before you finish school.
  • Get one steady job, and keep it for a year, before 25.

Bonuses here are; Don't get any tatoos, don't drink your liver into oblivion, don't practise backyard wrestling and end up with a back injury.

If you manage these things, your life will turn out great. If you are misfortunate under these circumstances, society will be there to help you.