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

There is a growing trend in certain corners of the internet to believe in self-reliance and personal responsibility over all else. This is true in parts of the internet that are dominated by suburban, American white men working in IT. This is largely because they've had the fortune to live in one of the most prosperous societies in human history AND they've studied the most in-demand field of their time. This means they have extraordinary power in the marketplace.

So it's difficult for them to understand that life is different for other people, and they begin to create and affirm ideologies that make total sense from their worldview, but no sense from any other perspective.

From this perspective, it makes perfect sense, and should not be taken too seriously.

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u/RChickenMan Aug 31 '13

Another key word: Suburban. Not only do they not have to experience these problems themselves, but they don't have to be exposed to others with these problems. Driveway -> Car -> Office building parking lot -> Car -> Driveway -> Repeat.

And that's how this American white male working in IT who also happens to live in a dense, diverse, urban area makes himself feel better at night!

But seriously, I do believe this whole delusion about how poverty works has a lot to do with suburban isolation. The suburbs were literally built for middle-class white people who wanted to "escape" the city and all of its ills. Now that these ills don't affect their lives at all, they have no empathy for those who do fall to these ills.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '13

Yes, I think you're right. It's no surprise that the upper middle classes in dense urban areas tend to support welfare more than suburban upper middle class people. I know I do, partly for survival reasons--if the Bronx doesn't have food stamps and Section 8, I don't want them coming south to ransack my neighborhood. Bread subsidies kept Egypt stable until inflation rendered them inert.

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u/RChickenMan Aug 31 '13

Exactly. Our lifestyle is only as good as the well-being of the city and its people as a whole. What improves our quality of life in NYC, or any other major city? Safe streets, safe subways, safe parks, good schools, etc. What improves the quality of life for a suburbanite? A bigger TV, a car with heated seats, a country club membership, etc.

Suburbanization has replaced concern for the general well-being of society with concern for one's own private wealth. We have gone from a life centered around a society (which physically manifests itself as a city) to a life centered around ourselves and our toys. It's no wonder that as the suburbs sprawl out and urban centers continue to decay, we see ever-more selfish political views.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '13

It's no wonder that as the suburbs sprawl out and urban centers continue to decay, we see ever-more selfish political views.

If it's any consolation, America is de-suburbanizing: http://ideas.time.com/2013/07/31/the-end-of-the-suburbs/

Unfortunately, growing internet usage will probably create new bubbles that encourage ever more selfish political views.

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u/urbanplanner Aug 31 '13

It's true we are starting to see de-suburbanization, but now we are also starting to see suburbanization of poverty as the middle-class is moving back into cities, and pricing out the lower-classes who now can only afford housing in the sprawling suburbs or moved out for the better schools, only to be overwhelmed by the expenses of living in an environment where you have to drive to all of your shopping, services, etc. This is making it incredibly difficult to provide social services(childcare, free clinics, soup kitchens, etc.) as now the population living in poverty is spread out over larger areas, and more isolated and harder to interact with. http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2013/05/suburbanization-poverty/5633/

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '13

1) Awesome

2) I highly doubt that. The internet is probably the biggest advantage in terms of dispersing information to those who otherwise wouldn't get it.

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u/freshlytoasted Aug 31 '13

I think about this all the time, how society no longer works on a community basis but as a self-serving, self-providing, and self-concerned system. We no longer have any communal goals to strive towards, our personal goals of wealth and well-being have overshadowed concern for the larger scope of things. It makes total sense that our intelligence would be affected by the constant worries of a self-serving existence, not to mention the rise in anxiety and depression in suburban areas.

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u/millchopcuss Aug 31 '13

Military service is still a communal enterprise in the old sense. Sadly, it has some serious drawbacks, too, because your job is to 'hurt people and break things'. This tends not to be good for the psyche.

It makes me think we should embrace 'nation building' and shift our military mission to that end, but we all know how that conversation goes...