Why do the poor make poor decisions?

You're in "screw it, but I have to eat something now" mode. Your win for the evening was not telling your boss to stuff it as you were leaving the job site. KFC isn't that big of a deal by comparison.

Poor people do dumb things because they live in shitty situations and are trying to survive, not thrive.

You don't mainline heroin because it's a great idea. You do it because your drug addiction has progressed to the point where this is the only thing you can do. You are addicted to drugs because it's the only thing you can do to escape endless depression from how shitty your life is. And you were born into this life, so "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" seems less likely than winning the lottery (hence why poor people play the lottery).

Yes, it's nuanced, because poverty and decision making is a complex issue :)

It's opportunity cost - you have the choice between eating fresh food, with the risk that it will spoil, or the choice of eating lower cost and frequently processed foods that have a longer shelf life.

There are also alot of factors to this - in a given week of budget the price difference between a processed product and fresh product might be radically different, but fresh food is almost always available throughout much of the developed world. There is another hidden cost here - when I see something I haven't tried before I will buy it and learn how to prepare it, but when I was poor, I didn't - it wasn't worth the risk that I would ruin the food, or that I wouldn't like it, and throwing away even a small amount of food was an intolerable waste. Less of a risk these days when even most people living at or below the poverty line have the ability to access the internet to learn, but in the late 90s, I was loathe to take those chances. There may be nutritionally rich, low cost options, but if people are too poor to have had regular exposure, or come from a culture unfamiliar with the foods available at reasonable prices locally, then poor eating choices will continue to be propagated.

The decision is not always a choice to eat the less healthy food over the more healthy food, it is a choice to marginally increase the level of food security you have by choosing less "healthy" options that have a longer shelf-life and offer a discount in bulk.

The article's thesis, with which I partially I agree, is that poverty is persisted, at least in part, by a poverty-induced inability to consider one's long-term welfare.

jimrandomh's comment seems (to me) to be saying that the poor are not making bad decisions, but instead behaving in an objectively logical/near-optimal way given how little money they have. See the beginning of his comment:

> This article tries to shift perception from "poor people make bad decisions because they're intrinsically dumb" to "poor people make bad decisions because poverty makes them dumb." But this is also wrong; the decisions poor people make are, for the most part, sensible decisions given the circumstances they're in.

What is a "bad decision" ? It's a decision that ends poorly. But poor people are not intentionally deciding to make bad decisions. No poor person goes "Oh boy, I hope I fuck up today!" They are making risky or ill-advised decisions, which then don't pan out. They may have been aware of the consequences, or even willfully ignorant of them. But there was still a cause and effect which started with a basic need. For most of those decisions, they are acted upon by considering the most immediate solution to the need.

Long-term goals are inherently prioritized lower than short-term goals. People with less money have less resources to achieve long-term goals. General welfare is often a secondary priority to the most basic needs of paying bills and feeding and sheltering oneself or one's family. But having a drink, doing drugs, the high of gambling, getting laid, and more are all much higher in priority than even those other basic needs, because they can be achieved the quickest and easiest and provide an immediate positive emotional gain, something sorely lacking for most poor people.

So in terms of decision making, first you'll buy booze, then you'll debate between buying food for your family or paying the electric bill, then you'll think about finding a job. But to get the booze or pay the bill you might have to steal a radio. If there are no other apparent options, these are simply the only choices.