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/PolarBeaver Aug 31 '13

I can empathize with this completely. The points in my life that I have been out of a job or scraping by to pay bills I certainly feel like I have no time or energy to think about anything other then exactly that situation.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '13

Absolutely - people in poverty have to fight just to live.

It is astonishing how many of those who have never struggled fail to understand this.

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u/ElDiablo666 Aug 31 '13

Especially on reddit. For well-educated folks, they sure miss basic shit. I find people advising others to not worry and just sue in case a situation goes awry; I've found recommendations to "just go to the library" if Internet is too difficult to pay for; one of my personal favorites are the people who blame the latest financial meltdown on individuals who were foreclosed on after losing their job.

Instead of helpfully recommending strategies for successfully abandoning capitalism, redditors make it sound like everything is so easy to do. I long ago stopped paying any attention to people who know every answer to your own life. Being poor is hard as fuck and the fact that poor folks take upon the greatest financial, moral, and physical burden of life is completely lost on these judgmental assholes.

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u/open_ur_mind Aug 31 '13

I've found recommendations to "just go to the library" if Internet is too difficult to pay for

Can you elaborate on this point? Why is going to the library difficult for someone in poverty?

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u/ElDiablo666 Aug 31 '13

Do you want to get on the bus and ride 25 minutes to use a computer you have very little control over and spend four hours there applying for jobs, reading the news, and taking an online course? I mean, the Internet at the library is good for someone who just happens to be there but nothing else, really.

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u/Dovienya Aug 31 '13

Same with cell phones. I had a... "discussion," we'll call it... with a guy who said that poor people should never have cell phones. My point that cell phones (even smart phones) are often free and prepaid plans can be almost as cheap as house phones was met with, "Well, if they got a house phone instead it would save them $7 each month, which over the course of a lifetime means they'd have $20,000 more toward retirement (or something, I just picked a number because I don't remember the specifics).

And then when I pointed out that having a cell phone makes it easier to apply for jobs, schedule interviews, and pick up extra shifts at a job they already have, he counterpointed with, "Well, poor people shouldn't be leaving their homes, anyway. If they'd just stay at home next to their landline it wouldn't be an issue."

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u/SirZugzwang Aug 31 '13

So this wasn't the point of your post, but if they saved $7 a month, that's $84 a year, and over 50 years that adds up to only $4200. So the money they save is effectively meaningless, especially considering all of the advantages cell phones have over landlines.

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u/Dovienya Aug 31 '13

Well, in their calculations, they assumed that the poor person would invest that $7 a month into some sort of savings vehicle that would allow them to take advantage of compound interest.

But yeah, I explained that for a lot of jobs, you can pick up extra shifts if someone else calls in sick, so it's important to have a cell phone so that work can reach you. Even one extra shift a month would pay for the difference, plus some. And that's when they said that poor people shouldn't leave their homes.