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When you're poor you instinctively accumulate stuff. If that is the case, why is this instinct part of poor people and not rich people? I tend to see it most
by fnid2 17y ago
When you're poor you instinctively accumulate stuff.
If that is the case, why is this instinct part of poor people and not rich people? I tend to see it most often in people who have lost a lot, like one of the other comments mentions living through the great depression. I see it in my grandmother and she also lived through the great depression.
However, I know some younger people who are poor and didn't live through a time of loss and do not accumulate a lot. They are minimalists. This seems to indicate to me that accumulating a lot of stuff is a learned behavior rather than an instinctual one.
Also, if it is instinctual in poor people, why is it not also instinctual in rich people, or simply all people? Is there something genetic that predisposes people to being poor? Are you implying that or am I incorrectly inferring it?
- pg 17y agoI would guess hoarding stuff is an instance of humans' general tendency to become more conservative (in this case in the most literal sense) when they feel resources are scarce. So someone who's poor by choice, like a grad student, would be less likely to. Whereas someone who grew up in an atmosphere of scarcity might be inclined to continue to hoard even if they later became rich.