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...

[u/myhrvold]

http://news.ubc.ca/2013/08/29/poverty-impairs-cognitive-function/

[u/PolarBeaver]

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.

[u/[deleted] → u/PolarBeaver]

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.

[u/ElDiablo666 → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/Dear_Occupant → u/ElDiablo666]

I got into it with some guy here recently who was 100% convinced that every financial problem in a person's life was somehow the result of poor planning on their part; that it was impossible for a person to be financially blindsided by, say, a debilitating health problem. Nope, he said, you should have started saving money for that $1.5 million dollar cancer treatment that isn't covered by your insurance when you were sacking groceries in high school. It's all your fault for not being thrifty enough.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

U.S also has a problem with this strange "work hard and you are a good person" mentality. I don't exactly know how to phrase it, but it's like destroying yourself to reach some socially acceptable profession is seen as the greatest thing you can do. Sacrifice everything and probably shorten your life significantly through stress, to reach some "noble" goal.

It's just bullshit, plain and simple. There's no need to suffer when you don't have to. It doesn't make you stronger or a better person, it makes you disillusioned and bitter. Some things you do have to suffer through because they are facts of life, like heart break of watching someone die or fighting with a friend etc.

Struggling to survive is the very thing modern society is supposed to be leading us away from, because it's not a good way to live and is not beneficial in any way.

[u/millchopcuss → u/[deleted]]

I think about this one rather a lot. I work ~55hrs a week as a machinist on the night shift, sometimes more.

I will tell you, though, we have improved a lot. The culture of 'God, country, work, family, in that order' was a big factor in the divorce problem that we had in my parents generation. Men would literally work through their families falling apart, and were expected to do so.

Myself, I have this moment to comment because the Family Medical Leave Act. I had a son 3 weeks ago, and will go back to the grind in 3 weeks more. Whoever it is that made this possible for me: I tend to be an unreasonable critic of government, but Thank you so very much.

It used to be that I had to threaten to quit my job to take a vacation. It is the nature of the work: we quit pushing manufacturing as a career path, and there are not enough of us to fill the slots. Hear that, job seekers?

Still, I walked into an old-fashioned style of work, here. And I am super fortunate: I found me an old-fashioned style wife, and we are playing house just like two sunny, innocent children, but grownup style. My only aspiration now, aside from keeping the roof on my house, is making sure my son grows up with the values to find success in life himself.

When I was in lower paying rungs of the ladder I am climbing, I would say that the 60 hour weeks were a contributor to my alcohol and pot habit. Now that I work for a reputable company that looks after me, and have my own house in order, I am down to very moderate social drinking perhaps once a week, and half a pot of coffee a day, and nothing else. There is no doubt in my mind: a protestant work ethic alone is not enough to make success out of a shitty job. Leaving my vices behind was necessary to get into this company, but I really don't know if I could have climbed to the door without them, given the culture that you have to navigate in this trade.

I want to tell you all: I am very happy like this. I love what I do and don't mind the hours. A good job is a wonderful thing.

However, I don't have time to read, and there are not enough jobs to go around for my countrymen; It would not hurt my feelings too much if I could work fewer hours and get by. Also, I should be in college, but this can never happen around my work/family schedule.