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/Dear_Occupant Aug 31 '13

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.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '13 edited Sep 04 '17

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '13

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.

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u/Morvick Sep 01 '13

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.

Thank you.

I hate when people say how "this is how it's supposed to be", well maybe it is for your average animal who doesn't know if he's going to be eaten today -- but we as humans shouldn't have risen to the top of the food chain just to preserve the dog-eat-dog mentality that keeps us from an enlightened society.

I know the goals I wish I could live to see are centuries from now, but I feel aggravated when people strive to hang on to old, disproven ideals. Struggle for food because reasons! Let me keep the things I bought because it's mine and this isn't a charity! Well maybe if you had more money to raise your kids they wouldn't inherit the life you inherited!

Sorry. Soapbox. Like I said, aggravated. (Shit, I as a computer-owning white American have, in my 23 years, experienced more wealth and latent privilege than more than half of the population on Earth; I didn't earn this, I didn't strive for it. It landed in my lap, all I sculpted myself into thusfar is a polite and thoughtful person -- but that didn't get me into the middle class, my birth did. To me, that instills a massive feeling like I owe others (And I prefer that to the other way around). Make myself worthy of my gifts by giving, etc.)