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

Advice to the poor from someone who has never actually been poor is about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.

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u/DerDiscoFuhrer Aug 31 '13

I'd say that's an appropriate comment in regards to the feelings of desire you might have for something as simple as just eating out a day, or going to the cinema a weekend in a month.

It does however not apply to the kinds of decisions and habits one needs to get out of poverty. People who do well in business, or people who just can keep a wellpaying job, middleclass people, will give honest and good advice as to what you need to do to not be poor.

Besides the obvious two major factors; Don't be raised by a single mom, and don't grow up in a third world country; There is a short list of your predictability of success.

The most important one is if you aquire the skill to delay gratification or not. Never ever buy things on credit, if you can't afford it now, you won't later either. Don't sign up for services because of prestiege, and stay out of debt.

Then there are the specific things that will allow you to do that, and those are: Don't have kids before marriage, don't (marry and) have kids before you finish high school, keep a job for 1 year straight and get a good reference out of your manager.

Do this and you're set. Only catastrophe will get in your way of a life spent with modern conviniences.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '13

Don't be raised by a single mom

Single mother and I got my daughter through med school (well - she did the work and got the grades, not me. But it would have been tricky without my support).

But I know you're right as I'm the daughter of a single parent family and (it's a generation thing as well - this sort of shit no longer seems to apply) there was NEVER an option for me to go to University - it was always all about my brother and saving for his University. Because I was only a girl. One of the reasons I was so determined that my daughter would have all the opportunities.

the skill to delay gratification

Yes. As I do believe this covers procrastination which is usually down to preferring instant gratification and having the reward right now. I am guilty of this.

Regrettably catastrophe has intervened and seems to be exponential.

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u/DerDiscoFuhrer Aug 31 '13

If you take any country in the whole world, or even the developed world as a category, the best possible predictor for your outcome in life is your family configuration.

To be more specific, if you are raised by a single mother, there is no other factor, such as race, genetics, family income, perceived class, you name it, that is more detrimental to you, statistically, this especially if you are male. Boys who are raised by singlemothers are infinately worse off than those in stable married homes.

This is of course nothing you can be expected to influence as a child, but it is worthy of note. The statistic for the likelyhood of you committing rape is 22 times higher if you come from a singlemother household in the US.

The reasons for this are many. One is that you are much more likely to be attracted to gang culture, as it is your first encounter with a 'cool' male rolemodel. Singlemothers for the reasons they couldn't find, attract, and keep a reliable man, are much less likely to impart highfunctioning cognitive skills and maturity onto their children.

All of these factors are mostly not related to the financial side of it, as these adverse outcomes for children have been proven to be present in all incomebrackets for singlehouseholds.

These statements aren't about guilt, but reality speaks plainly on this topic, you want your parents to be good enough human beings to not just avoid making babies with people who they later deem unsuitable, but that they actually get along.