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I'll need to find a better source because I remember an actual study, but is it that they don't have executive functioning skills or is it that being poor affec

I'll need to find a better source because I remember an actual study, but is it that they don't have executive functioning skills or is it that being poor affects their executive functioning skills via the constant stress: https://borgenproject.org/psychological-effects-poverty/ https://borgenproject.org/psychological-effects-poverty/

quacked 4y ago
That's an interesting question; if stress alone impacts executive functioning skills you'd expect to see similar reductions in high-stress jobs like surgery, finance, war, extreme sports, etc. Of course one doesn't necessarily consent to the stress of poverty as one might the stress of a career; I suspect that the threat of violence and the fear of being evicted or moved would cause a different stress distribution on the brain then that of performing surgery or flying a fighting helicopter. Ultimately, I think it's likely that stress impacts everyone's executive functioning, not just poor people, but poor people may have a higher stress burden and also probably had lower raw "executive functioning" ability to begin with. In Western countries, where the economies are primarily based on rewarding jobs that prioritize extreme logical abstractions, there is a clear casual relationship between measured intelligence* and lifetime earning potential. I believe that this (unsavory) point is too often left out when proposing solutions to poverty because it implies the existence of an inherent, unfixable difference in human ability. To me this difference is obvious and should simply be planned for, but to many others it's a myth. I do feel passionately about this subject because one of my family members is developmentally disabled enough that she cannot live a normal life but not enough that she's obviously impaired, and the rate at which her decisions lead her to live the life of a pretty run-of-the-mill American poor person is astonishing. If we didn't pay for everything she needed she would fit in perfectly with the behavior and lifestyles of the people in the slum areas of my city, and in fact she's already done some stints there due to some friends she made when she was unwilling to live at the family home. (* = I am not saying "poor people are poor because they're dumb" or "if you're smarter you'll make more money" or that "IQ is real", only that "when you select a random adult, the less well they're able to perform on western-style intelligence tests the less likely it is they'll have a lot of money".)
- ashwagary 4y ago
  >if stress alone impacts executive functioning skills you'd expect to see similar reductions in high-stress jobs like surgery, finance, war, extreme sports, etc. It's not that complicated. Long term thinking requires certainty. Poor people generally dont have enough economic certainty to plan for longer periods into the future and that's the cause of their constant stress. This stress and uncertainty poor people experience can constantly create survival scenarios where a longer chain of consecutive decisions have to be correct than for an equally intelligent rich person.

quacked 4y ago

That's an interesting question; if stress alone impacts executive functioning skills you'd expect to see similar reductions in high-stress jobs like surgery, finance, war, extreme sports, etc. Of course one doesn't necessarily consent to the stress of poverty as one might the stress of a career; I suspect that the threat of violence and the fear of being evicted or moved would cause a different stress distribution on the brain then that of performing surgery or flying a fighting helicopter. Ultimately, I think it's likely that stress impacts everyone's executive functioning, not just poor people, but poor people may have a higher stress burden and also probably had lower raw "executive functioning" ability to begin with. In Western countries, where the economies are primarily based on rewarding jobs that prioritize extreme logical abstractions, there is a clear casual relationship between measured intelligence* and lifetime earning potential. I believe that this (unsavory) point is too often left out when proposing solutions to poverty because it implies the existence of an inherent, unfixable difference in human ability. To me this difference is obvious and should simply be planned for, but to many others it's a myth. I do feel passionately about this subject because one of my family members is developmentally disabled enough that she cannot live a normal life but not enough that she's obviously impaired, and the rate at which her decisions lead her to live the life of a pretty run-of-the-mill American poor person is astonishing. If we didn't pay for everything she needed she would fit in perfectly with the behavior and lifestyles of the people in the slum areas of my city, and in fact she's already done some stints there due to some friends she made when she was unwilling to live at the family home. (* = I am not saying "poor people are poor because they're dumb" or "if you're smarter you'll make more money" or that "IQ is real", only that "when you select a random adult, the less well they're able to perform on western-style intelligence tests the less likely it is they'll have a lot of money".)

ashwagary 4y ago
>if stress alone impacts executive functioning skills you'd expect to see similar reductions in high-stress jobs like surgery, finance, war, extreme sports, etc. It's not that complicated. Long term thinking requires certainty. Poor people generally dont have enough economic certainty to plan for longer periods into the future and that's the cause of their constant stress. This stress and uncertainty poor people experience can constantly create survival scenarios where a longer chain of consecutive decisions have to be correct than for an equally intelligent rich person.