"The Psychological Poverty Trap - The poor aren't less able, they're distracted"

A really great article that I think highlights something the 1% can't even comprehend.

When you are under stress and already having issues related to money, jobs, etc, it makes functioning in those areas even more debilitating. When you have a limited amount of money to spend - deciding how to spend it is much more stressful. When you have a low wage job, work is more stressful and demanding or at least less flexible.

You feel as though you are always scrambling to keep up or make ends meet and that is bound to impact your decision making - thus perpetuating your circumstances. No matter how hard you work or how well intentioned you are, you tread water, making the same mistakes over and over again. You can't even see how the stress impacts your thinking. You just try to muddle through the short term problems and, in the end, you make no meaningful progress toward future success. You stay poor.

It's kind of like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - you can't possibly succeed at higher minded goals (in this case financial stability or prosperity) if you are unsure even of your day to day comfort or survival.

www.haaretz.com...

The poor aren't less able, they're distracted, says poverty expert Eldar Shafir. Privileged people subjected to the same conditions would also make bad decisions...

...Most of us judge poor people, viewing them at worst as lazy, at best as suffering from deficient financial behavior. We've gotten used to thinking that being poor is their fault: If they were smarter or more industrious they surely would have overcome their poverty.

Shafir, however, claims that the real culprit isn't lack of ability but problems created by poverty. "These problems are distracting and cause mistakes," he told Markerweek in an interview.

"When you're poor you're surrounded by bad decisions of people around you," he says. "You're so concerned about the present that you can't begin thinking about the future, and that's the big irony: People with the greatest need to think about the future don't have the leisure or emotional capacity to do so. The very essence of poverty complicates decisions and makes immediate needs so urgent that you start making wrong choices. These mistakes aren't any different from anyone else's, but they occur more frequently due to the element of stress, and their implications are much greater."

"When you're poor you're surrounded by bad decisions of people around you," he says. "You're so concerned about the present that you can't begin thinking about the future, and that's the big irony: People with the greatest need to think about the future don't have the leisure or emotional capacity to do so. The very essence of poverty complicates decisions and makes immediate needs so urgent that you start making wrong choices. These mistakes aren't any different from anyone else's, but they occur more frequently due to the element of stress, and their implications are much greater."

Amen to that.

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

reply to post by KillerQueen

A really great article that I think highlights something the 1% can't even comprehend.

Oh, they can because it's by design...

reply to post by Americanist


AMEN! you said it all!
2nd

It's a lot deeper than that as well but this post is right and exact.

Remember trickle down economics?

Well now its starting to trickle up. More poor there are out there it begins to severely effect the ones at the top.
Unfortunately they have to help your unbelief by allowing it to be cruddy for awhile. Helps your unwillingness to change

A whole new world financial system will be brought online...it will actually be alot better. Lets just say you will be able to do alot better than just making ends meet.
Many still fear it with all the New World Order Religious dogma mind control---this fear of a New World Order is what the other side wants and that is to stay in absolute power ruling over the masses. Keep the system in Hiearchial unfairness 1 percent rules over the 99.

The Goal is to erradicate poverty-
When this is done many other things will get better
Attitude
How you treat one another
How you see leadership ( that cruel cabal up there in the halls of power) big ole meanies..You will finally see they werent trying to harm you just mold it better.
Health improvement
Emotional well being
Spiritual wellbeing
You wont be so overly concerned with bills and how little you have.


Give it a little time.....Your leaders dont help themselves by harming you...they actually think well of you but as when parents discipline their kids,,,the kids pout, scream, hide, feel picked on, and sometimes say "i hate you"


Relax and enjoy the ride.

So, now what?

reply to post by ErroneousDylan


It's a conundrum for sure. In order to be able make good decisions that work toward insuring a more financially stable future, people need less stress. But the most productive way to reduce stress and have more clarity of thought for the future is to be more financially stable.

Nice post OP. That's one of the reasons that there is almost no such thing as middle class...distractions. And those distractions come in many forms.

reply to post by KillerQueen


www.haaretz.com...

The poor aren't less able, they're distracted, says poverty expert Eldar Shafir. Privileged people subjected to the same conditions would also make bad decisions...

If they were in the same circumstances,they would behave in very criminal manners, and ripping off everyone they could, such as the Rockefeller clan who sold herbal cures for cancer and ailments that were made out of petreuleum.

www.seekgod.ca...

The study recently on ATS showed that the wealthy were more likely to cheat in exams, to be criminal, because they are psychopaths.

Wisdom Looks Up From the Bottom Of The Well.

I think it's simpler then that.

You need money and time to make money, the more you have, the easier it becomes.
Also, the less empathy you have, the more you can be rich and step on others head to reach your greedy goal without feeling any remorse.

The financial system isn't built for people with love and compassion guiding their lives, it's built for egoistical psychopaths.

What a rip off.

I posted this theory back in 2006...Subtle Evolutions. I even went a step forward and considered that it would be perpetuated through subsequent generations if external/environmental considerations remained the same.

Took them six years to catch up...

Read my take on this subject.

I wrote a thread awhile back on ATS call "A Plea For Help"

www.abovetopsecret.com...