Poverty is more brutal than you think
When I first read this sentence in "The Attributes of Money", I was immediately shocked, what are the consequences of poverty?
Economists once did a sugarcane experiment:
Economists in India have found that 99 per cent of farmers borrow money each year in the month before they harvest it, and only 13 per cent borrow money in the month after harvesting it.After excluding various possible factors, economists have come to a clear conclusion:Poverty can be a burden on the mind, and poverty weakens fluid intelligence and executive control. That is, poverty makes you stupid, makes you unable to concentrate, and makes it easier for you to say the wrong thing and do the wrong thing.Therefore, many farmers have encountered financial constraints when paying their daily expenses before the harvest.
They began to test the judgment of farmers before and after harvest.
After testing, they found that farmers were 11 percent slower to respond when they were poor than when they were rich, and they made 15 percent more mistakes.
It's actually normal to think about it, for example, you just came back from work, the landlord came to urge you to pay the rent, you didn't sleep well all night and were thinking about going to ** to find money to pay the rent, the next day you were depressed and went to work, and you still thought about where to find money at work, you couldn't pay attention to your energy to work, you accidentally said the wrong thing, and you were scolded by the boss, and your salary was deducted at the end of the month, hey, you were in a bad mood again.
People's energy is limited, lack of money will consume huge energy, every day is anxious about how to pay rent, what to eat next, ** have time to concentrate on work, improve their skills, improve their cognition.
Day after day, the lack of money will continue to wear down your fighting spirit and make you incompetent.
No one wants to live in poverty, more helplessness.
In addition to the above-mentioned lack of money, which makes people less productive and earnings, there are more serious consequences of not having money.
The Nature of Poverty records a scene:
In a remote mountain village in Morocco, people don't have enough to eat. When asked what he would do if he had more money, he said he would use it to buy more food. But, in fact, when they have money, they do not use it to buy more food, but to buy televisions, wires, etc. Because they believe that the TV is more important than the food!It reminds me of an incident I encountered in the village when I was a child.Improving food would have given them enough to eat, giving them the strength to earn more money to improve their lives.
But they didn't do that and chose to buy entertainment products to get through the hard days.
This, in turn, leads to them running out of money.
Around 2004, the rural economy improved, but it was limited to food and clothing, and prosperity was not enough.
During the harvest season, the villagers will keep enough food rations at home and sell the surplus grain, which can earn a lot of income.
This money is precious to any village family.
As a result, my neighbor's uncle used the money from the sale of grain to buy a cutting-edge flip phone, and the 3,000 yuan was gone.
So far, the neighbor's uncle has not saved any money.
There are two ways to make money in modern society: earning money with labor or earning money with money.
Lack of money means that you are lame, you can't make money with money, you can only exchange labor for a meager income.
Time and compound interest are the medicine of the rich, but they are the poison of the poor.
The more time passes, the more you are different from others, and the less money you will become.
If you don't have money, it will make it difficult for you to see a doctor, and a minor illness will become a major illness, making it even worse for poor families.
No money makes you have no choice and becomes even less moneyless.
One day, I went to a restaurant for dinner and met a few junior high school students chatting after finishing their classes.
A few people talked about their future prospects with great interest, and one little girl said, I don't want to study, anyway, I will definitely find a job in the future.
I thought to myself, yo, this is a girl whose family has a mine to inherit, and she has so much confidence.
The conversation that followed took me by surprise.
The little girl went on to say that my mother works as a nanny in someone else's house, and her monthly income is good, so I will also work as a nanny for others.
I never expected that junior high school students would be so hasty in planning their future.
I don't know how her parents felt when they heard this, the hard-earned money for their children to go to cram school and want to have a good future. However, children simply cannot feel the hardships of their parents' work.
With the same salary, I don't know how much my parents have to suffer more than others, and how much more face they look at others.
Parents want their children to jump out of their cognitive world, and the child falls into the cognitive world of their parents.
That's the scariest thing.
In terms of education, it is difficult for poor parents to provide their children with adequate education and cognitive improvement.
I can only tell the teacher repeatedly and vigorously that I must grasp the child well.
As for how to grasp the education of children, they are at a loss.
In terms of considering only exams in a single dimension, children from poor families are likely to lose.
This kind of loss is not because of bad exams, but because compared with other children with the same intellectual conditions, they will be weaker than them.
The main difference is that family education is invested in energy and money.
Take the simplest example of reading a book.
Parents know that reading to their children every day will be beneficial to their children's development.
If you are financially affluent, parents can spare some energy to spend with their children and read their carefully selected books to their children every day.
If the family is poor, the parents have to put all their energy into earning money, and when they come home, they are not only tired and don't want to talk, but also have a messy mood, at this time, they will not think of or be willing to read to their children at all.
Over time, the difference between the two children who are about the same becomes more and more obvious, and the class is solidified.
Poverty is not only a lack of money, but also a lack of energy to make a difference.
Seidhill Mullenathan concludes in Scarcity:
No money means no time;Poverty is more brutal than you thinkLack of money means it's harder to socialize;
If you don't have money, it means that the quality of the food will be lower, and your health will be lower.
If you don't have money, it means that the quality of your children's education will be reduced;
Being poor means that you are in a state of scarcity in the things that determine every aspect of your life.