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There is a distinctive psychology of scarcity, argues Mr Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir, a psychologist at Princeton University. People’s minds work differently when they feel they lack something. [...]
This mindset brings two benefits. It concentrates the mind on pressing needs. [...]
This scarcity mindset can also be debilitating. It shortens a person’s horizons and narrows his perspective, creating a dangerous tunnel vision. Anxiety also saps brainpower and willpower, reducing mental “bandwidth”, as the authors call it. Indian sugarcane farmers score worse on intelligence tests before the harvest (when they are short of cash) than after. Feeling poor lowers a person’s IQ by as much as a night without sleep.
I haven't read the book in question, but the review raises an interesting question. What if poverty and "slow-wittedness" are indeed self-reinforcing? It may be that although poor people are indeed stupid, that very stupidity is itself a consequence of being poor. Which suggests that the best way to break the cycle isn't just to make poor people poorer -- as so many seem inclined to do.
Last edited by Ibginnie; 09-04-2013 at 03:17 PM..
Reason: copyright
It may be that although poor people are indeed stupid, that very stupidity is itself a consequence of being poor. Which suggests that the best way to break the cycle isn't just to make poor people poorer -- as so many seem inclined to do.
I would suggest it's the other way around. Being poor is a consequence of stupidity, or, more likely, it's a consequence of a substandard education.
However, as mentioned in one of the excerpts above, worrying about money can cause people to score lower on IQ tests. So this suggests that the correlation between poverty (or "scarcity" as the authors have it) and low IQ is not entirely one-sided.
I haven't read the book in question, but the review raises an interesting question. What if poverty and "slow-wittedness" are indeed self-reinforcing? It may be that although poor people are indeed stupid, that very stupidity is itself a consequence of being poor. Which suggests that the best way to break the cycle isn't just to make poor people poorer -- as so many seem inclined to do.
Putting the cause and the effect upside down in order to throw down the drain even more money - nothing new under the sun, jsimply more lies to justify government spending.
Dumb and lazy people will always be poorer - does not mean the taxpayer needs to support it
Putting the cause and the effect upside down in order to throw down the drain even more money - nothing new under the sun, jsimply more lies to justify government spending.
Dumb and lazy people will always be poorer - does not mean the taxpayer needs to support it
Again, you have no evidence whatsoever for that statement.
Again, you have no evidence whatsoever for that statement.
Neither do you for the other way around.
Laziness and stupidity are the drivers of poverty, and one does not need any "studies" to support the obvious. Do you need a peer review study to prove that a fire can burn you? No? How come?
Dumb and lazy people will always be poorer - does not mean the taxpayer needs to support it
The assertion that poor people, or those on some form of government assistance, are "dumb and lazy" is completely baseless.
I've worked in social services for more than a quarter-century, having spent a significant portion of those years working directly with people who receive food stamps or a similar resource.
Yes, there are lazy people who could work but refuse to, and there are people who play the system and lie, etc.
But the majority of people on assistance actually work and many of them are perfectly bright and even well educated.
Another myth is the "people on assistance are drug addicts" one. My state recently drug tested all adult members of 1300 families who were receiving TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families) and found only 29 people total who tested positive for any drugs.
So how do you explain the fact that some people have managed to lift themselves out of poverty? Or that some rich people are lazy and stupid?
And how do you explain the researchers' findings about those Indian farmers?
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