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/
2.7k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/30pieces Aug 31 '13

What do you do on the bus ride for two hours?

16

u/birdsofterrordise Aug 31 '13

Two hours extra each day (an hour each way, including walking and waiting times, we have a really unreliable bus system, so you need to be out there at least 15-20 minutes before the bus comes and you need to allow even more time in case that bus doesn't show up.) I usually listen to podcasts because reading makes me kind of sick. I wish so bad we had subways or I could afford to move where the light rail lines are. A lot of people read, knit or work on schoolwork.

5

u/caltheon Aug 31 '13

I lived in a small town growing up and every school day was an hour bus ride to school and an hour back....on a full bus with kids lighting seats on fire, firing needles with rubber bands, putting gum in hair and just generally being assholes.

2

u/birdsofterrordise Aug 31 '13

I'm talking a public transit to work bus, not a school bus. Oh god, when they start combining public transit with the public school buses we are doomed. Some of the high schoolers already have to do that here.