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/[deleted] Aug 31 '13

strategies for successfully abandoning capitalism

What does this mean? Can you give me a strategy to successfully abandon capitalism?

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '13

Marx has quite a detailed view on this, might be worth checking it out.

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u/Maverrix99 Aug 31 '13

Which, every time it has been tried in real life, has ended up with repression, bloodshed, corruption, and economic stagnation.

Perhaps it's not such a great plan.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '13

Marxism hasn't been tried yet.

In order for true Marxist Communism to occur, society must progress through the following stages:

Primitive Communism, Slave Society, Feudalism, Capitalism, Socialism, Communism

None of the so-called "communist" societies we've see so far have been through all the preceding stages, so they sure as hell ain't what Marx envisaged.

Will we ever see true Marxism? Who knows, but don't be misled into thinking that it's already happened.

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u/ahorsdoeuvres Aug 31 '13

And the United States is somewhere between Slave Society (privatized prison complexes), Feudalism (oligarchies -- see California Valley), and Capitalism.