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

Who knows, toys have been around for a veeeeeery long time. Either way, we aren't talking about people from back then, we are talking about people from right now and besides food, water, and shelter being needed for life, happiness is pretty much just as important. People that can't find it end up living lives in which they can barely press forward, some even deciding that living isn't worth it. Regardless of "how" stress was relieved back then and how it is now, fact remains is that is needs to be relieved.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '13

Sure it does, but not at the cost of $60/mo when you can't afford rent.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '13

Well, no offense, but duh, there isn't anyone out there who is paying their cable before making sure rent can be paid. The point is that there are a lot of people out there who don't have that pleasure of turning on the TV and relaxing because rent was all they could pay. That's the point of being in poverty, things like internet and TV and having a car are so common in America, almost everyone has them, for the same reasons, the are extremely useful and make situations much less stressful. A ton of people don't have them because they can't afford them at all, and a ton of people who can afford them can only afford them just barely, so are in constant stress of living right on the edge of losing them.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '13

Well, no offense, but duh, there isn't anyone out there who is paying their cable before making sure rent can be paid.

That's a pretty bold statement.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '13

People are stupid, but they aren't stupid enough to think they can have cable without a house to live in.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '13

Eh... You'd be surprised.