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Old 05-25-2019, 01:25 PM
 
Location: Murica
834 posts, read 1,017,081 times
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I notice there are a lot of people in the US who fall well below the poverty guidelines in the US their whole lives, but never act out from never being able to break out despite working full time. Has there ever been a study in to why these people are so submissive in America?

For example someone who is going in to their sixties and never could afford a mortgage or to pay off a decent car that has never questioned why their hard work never paid off, and are submissive to successful people in public.
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Old 05-25-2019, 01:52 PM
 
Location: Tricity, PL
61,734 posts, read 87,147,355 times
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Submissive?
Content?

What about being born to poor, uneducated, jobless parents, perhaps even homeless, then add to it
lack of proper education, lack of skills, high divorce rate, many single parents, high pregnancy rate in teens, very poor net of social programs, health problems, crime, very high incarceration rate, drugs use, lack of public transportation, race, very low wages for low skilled/uneducated, increasing cost of living, high and increasing cost of college education, very high cost of medical care ..... This list can go on and on.
Do I need to elaborate?

Last edited by elnina; 05-25-2019 at 02:15 PM..
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Old 05-26-2019, 08:18 AM
 
5,252 posts, read 4,677,849 times
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Understanding poverty in America takes some doing, mostly because poverty is the antithesis of the American myth regarding an assumed widespread prosperity. If it weren't for that notion we'd be much better positioned to see the strong undercurrent of social realities which cause so many to live in perpetual financial distress.

The rise of the middle sector of the working class was mostly attributed to the rise in union organizing and the subsequent improvements in people's lives, barring that, I'm pretty sure we would have had the usual two tier society common to the rest of the world's emergent economies. Upward economic mobility isn't a given, and even in America it can be a very difficult thing to achieve, let alone sustain, over the long run.

The subject of poverty in America has been studied to death at the nation's most prestigious universities, but, understanding the causes means one would need to READ the results of all that studying, fat chance of that happening in a country of non readers though. But, that lacking, amid a deluge of economic myths serves as the reasons so many fail to ever have a good understanding of our most pressing social ills.

Regrading the notions of a "submissive" attitude on the part of the impoverished: I'm not sure that is a valid observation just for the fact that many of the poor are becoming better organized with regard to their own desires to, seek better labor compensation, obtain affordable housing, end educational disparities, not to mention advancing the idea of health care as a fundamental right.

What is seldom, if ever, discussed, is the fact of the wealthy being highly organized around the principles of capitalism and it's practice of wealth migration to the upper strata, versus the poor being terribly unorganized and under paid. Becoming better organized is the challenge for the poor, but when they do organize it becomes obvious they are anything but content..
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Old 05-26-2019, 01:01 PM
 
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the system in US is in place to make life really impossible for the majority...its called s*tanic-economics. Well not really but thats what it is. Squeeze the life out of people and dispose of them like a lemon peel. Its sad...theres no way out save for getting on a fixed income which is its own challenge.
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Old 05-26-2019, 01:28 PM
 
Location: Riding a rock floating through space
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The answer is obvious, the deeply ingrained survival instinct. Act out and get crushed like a bug, steal and go to jail, rise and overcome (few can do it), suicide or just keep on keeping on. Those are the choices, the vast majority just keep plugging away. Besides, I think most accept that we all end up in the same place, in the end it doesn't matter how much money we had during our wee bit of time in this life.
All this adds up to one thing - apathy.
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Old 05-26-2019, 01:47 PM
 
6,460 posts, read 3,980,997 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by elnina View Post
Submissive?
Content?

What about being born to poor, uneducated, jobless parents, perhaps even homeless, then add to it
lack of proper education, lack of skills, high divorce rate, many single parents, high pregnancy rate in teens, very poor net of social programs, health problems, crime, very high incarceration rate, drugs use, lack of public transportation, race, very low wages for low skilled/uneducated, increasing cost of living, high and increasing cost of college education, very high cost of medical care ..... This list can go on and on.
Do I need to elaborate?
^ This.

And:
I'm sure they questioned it many times. What is that going to accomplish? When you are spending all of your time working, dealing with the next crisis, simply trying to survive, you have little time or energy left for ... whatever it is you expect people will do. I've seen people who've been kicked when they're down so many times that I don't know how they survive. Someone hurt at work and now on disability... then their kid ends up on the hospital. Someone retired on Social Security income... their adult child ends up sick or in jail, and now they have the four grandkids... then the roof starts leaking... in the winter... and their car breaks down. And they're supposed to also find the time to protest something??

Working a job you desperately need... you're not going to rock the boat and possibly lose that income. (Another current thread here with someone who was assaulted by a customer at work. A lot of responses like "why not defend yourself? Why not call the police?" Because then they probably get fired and how do you get a new job after that, or management makes their working life hell/cuts their hours/whatever, that's why.)

Without the health, or education, or time, or money, to do anything about it, plus it's easy to become discouraged and depressed, possibly lacking support from those around you who are stuck in the same boat...
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Old 05-28-2019, 10:51 AM
 
Location: Southwest Washington State
30,585 posts, read 25,167,759 times
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I don’t understand your question. Subjectivity? What?

But, yes, poverty as it exists in the U.S. has been extensively studied.
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Old 06-22-2019, 03:16 PM
 
446 posts, read 397,024 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TJJT View Post
I notice there are a lot of people in the US who fall well below the poverty guidelines in the US their whole lives, but never act out from never being able to break out despite working full time. Has there ever been a study in to why these people are so submissive in America?

For example someone who is going in to their sixties and never could afford a mortgage or to pay off a decent car that has never questioned why their hard work never paid off, and are submissive to successful people in public.
Where do you come up with "submissive"?

What do you mean by "successful"? Monetary gain? Material possessions?
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Old 06-23-2019, 10:29 AM
 
50,816 posts, read 36,501,346 times
Reputation: 76625
Quote:
Originally Posted by TJJT View Post
I notice there are a lot of people in the US who fall well below the poverty guidelines in the US their whole lives, but never act out from never being able to break out despite working full time. Has there ever been a study in to why these people are so submissive in America?

For example someone who is going in to their sixties and never could afford a mortgage or to pay off a decent car that has never questioned why their hard work never paid off, and are submissive to successful people in public.
I would bet everything I have that rich people say this about people making 40,000 a year. And it’s just it’s hard to go from middle class to wealth than it is to go from poverty to the middle class. I’ve been middle-class my entire life. It’s not because I decided to be content with it. I would love to be a millionaire.It’s just human design that people tend to stay in the situations that they know.
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Old 06-23-2019, 11:44 AM
 
Location: Germany
720 posts, read 429,008 times
Reputation: 1899
It has nothing to do with survival instinct.
It is fear of accepting that you have free will.
If children can be happy in even extreme cases of poverty, anyone can.

I would say it is depression and lack of critical thinking. I guess depression can heavily affect critical thinking so..
People are just now realizing that depression is much deeper than we thought.
People saying "you're not depressed, you're just sad" are probably underestimating their own feelings as well.
Depression is literally being very sad. Sad to the point that you feel hopeless about the world. "The world is a negative place and I don't have the power to change it."
That's how.

People need to talk more, cry more, ask for help more, dream and be happy and most of all free.
Before you rush to deny what I am saying, start valuing your thoughts and emotions more.
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