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Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

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Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#141

Post by malvosenior »

coldtea wrote: post #76
qaq wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You like to focus on extremes. The important question is how a person from poor background can move into middle class. Who becomes a billionaire is pretty irrelevant even if you are from well to do family your chances of making it to ,,, are still extremely low.

> The important question is how a person from poor background can move into middle class. The important question for a society is how many persons of poor backgrounds move into middle class (and how many middle class persons fall into poverty). And the answer should be systemic, not just about "laziness" and "lack of motivation" and so on, because that wont explain how some societies manage to have way less pour/home…

The cultural mores of poor communities are also "systemic", your argument seems to entirely discount the role they play in individual opportunity.

Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#142

Post by mrguyorama »

dekhn wrote: post #14
ja3k wrote: post #3

The article acknowledges that the study does not show causation and it seems a little strange to think a causal arrow in this direction is more plausible than the other direction. It seems like people who do better at thinking and memory tasks should also do better at their jobs and interviews and therefore be less likely to experience an income drop. To speculate on income drop's effect on mental acumen one would wa…

The best thing to do when you see a study that counters your opinion on the causality of something, just swap the causality, and move on. Many association papers are just written to confirm the investigator's prior beliefs.

"The best thing to do when you see science you don't like, is pretend it reinforces your already existing biases"

What?

Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#143

Post by SolaceQuantum »

throwaway631673 wrote: post #121
JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's not your place to tell other people how to live. If they want to spend their days watching football, instead of learning math or computers: it is their decision to make. A lot of those people won't care that you are more successful than them. They're content with just watching football: it's what they're choosing to do, after all.

I disagree. Yes, you should not tell other people how to live their lives. But if these people who make poor choices and then look for handouts, from your tax dollars, then you have right to complain about their lifestyle. I had to support my brothers for a long time. They just stayed with my parents, played video games all day, hung out with wrong crowd at night, and complained about lack of money. My parents would…

"But if these people who make poor choices and then look for handouts, from your tax dollars, then you have right to complain about their lifestyle."

But my tax dollars go to handouts for things I think are bad choices all the time to the wealthy! My tax dollars are used to subsidize industries I don't agree with to continue in their wasteful useage of resources. If we are to protest bad decisions begging for handouts, we should first complain about the lifestyles of board members of companies.

Johnson and Johnson knowingly created abestos-laden baby powder[1] and they recieved 8 million in federal subidies, 80 million in state/local ones. With an additional 10 million in federal loans. [0]

0. https://subsidytracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/johnson-and-... 1. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/johnsona...

Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#144

Post by malandrew »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #106
malvosenior wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As one of those people (I didn't go to Stanford, but I did move a few rungs up the socioeconomic ladder), I take issue with your point. It's not helpful. There is definitely a culture of anti-intellectualism and escapism among the poor in the US (my background). Sure, the rich kids have it easy and it's super easy to sit around feeling bad about that but in many, many cases people could better themselves with a modic…

If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's not your place to tell other people how to live. If they want to spend their days watching football, instead of learning math or computers: it is their decision to make. A lot of those people won't care that you are more successful than them. They're content with just watching football: it's what they're choosing to do, after all.

I don't concern myself with what such people do up until they start voting for politicians that want to raise taxes on everyone else to subsidize their lifestyle.

Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#145

Post by ddingus »

throwaway631673 wrote: post #121
JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's not your place to tell other people how to live. If they want to spend their days watching football, instead of learning math or computers: it is their decision to make. A lot of those people won't care that you are more successful than them. They're content with just watching football: it's what they're choosing to do, after all.

I disagree. Yes, you should not tell other people how to live their lives. But if these people who make poor choices and then look for handouts, from your tax dollars, then you have right to complain about their lifestyle. I had to support my brothers for a long time. They just stayed with my parents, played video games all day, hung out with wrong crowd at night, and complained about lack of money. My parents would…

Telling others what to do and how to live makes no sense. Talking about how to live better makes a lot of sense.

Blame and shame really aren't productive.

Given the strong role luck has in our lives, improving on society such that people can figure out how to live better a little more comfortably makes a lot of sense as well.

Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#146

Post by malandrew »

SolaceQuantum wrote: post #143
throwaway631673 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Yes, you should not tell other people how to live their lives. But if these people who make poor choices and then look for handouts, from your tax dollars, then you have right to complain about their lifestyle. I had to support my brothers for a long time. They just stayed with my parents, played video games all day, hung out with wrong crowd at night, and complained about lack of money. My parents would…

"But if these people who make poor choices and then look for handouts, from your tax dollars, then you have right to complain about their lifestyle." But my tax dollars go to handouts for things I think are bad choices all the time to the wealthy! My tax dollars are used to subsidize industries I don't agree with to continue in their wasteful useage of resources. If we are to protest bad decisions begging for handout…

That's not an argument against the point you're replying to. We shouldn't subsidize wastefulness by either the rich or the poor when they make poor choices and squander opportunities and resources.

Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#147

Post by SolaceQuantum »

AlexTWithBeard wrote: post #58
anonuser123456 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Instead people wrongly think fast food is cheaper than home cooked food. Fast food is cheaper than home cooked food when you factor in time & mental effort. Cooking at home requires skills that many people do not have.

Sorry, this is beyond my understanding. Morning porridge: pour water into oats. Microwave for 2 minutes. Dinner: pour water into rice. Boil for 10 minutes. Add a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. My 7yo does it. Do you seriously think there's a non-disabled adult incapable of pouring water in a bowl?

Of course rotisserie chicken is just another form of fast food. You're proving the point!

Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#148

Post by hombre_fatal »

malandrew wrote: post #144
JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's not your place to tell other people how to live. If they want to spend their days watching football, instead of learning math or computers: it is their decision to make. A lot of those people won't care that you are more successful than them. They're content with just watching football: it's what they're choosing to do, after all.

I don't concern myself with what such people do up until they start voting for politicians that want to raise taxes on everyone else to subsidize their lifestyle.

It's the same with personal health choices. You don't just die in a vacuum when your health decisions come home to roost. Rather, you take from finite, shared medical resources. For that reason, "my body, my choices" isn't as bulletproof as it seems at first glance.

I'm reminded of all the people who weren't allowed back into evacuation zones during the latest surge of forest fires to save more belongings from their house. People invoke the reasonable point of "I should be able to make that gamble if I want" but in reality, if they were to find themselves in danger, they'd be squandering resources of emergency responders having to save them and the attention of other people who should be working on evacuating swiftly rather than saving their neighbor.

It's not always obvious where to draw the line when concerning ourselves with the actions of others.

Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#149

Post by sharadov »

virgilp wrote: post #138
sharadov wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean, it's not working for you or your kids?

For the kids - they don't seem to take inspiration at all from us, in fact it's almost like they make a point to be as different from us as possible. Maybe that'll change after the teenage years, who knows :). But, tbh, I don't even mind. I don't want them necessarily to make similar choices with ours... it's just that their path is so different that I don't know where it'll lead them (we're both engineers, our kids…

I would chalk it down to teenage rebellion. My parents were doctors and I wanted to get as far away from being one, became an engineer ( but if you ask me today, I would have gone down the medicine route..).

Re: Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age

#150

Post by SolaceQuantum »

malandrew wrote: post #146
SolaceQuantum wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"But if these people who make poor choices and then look for handouts, from your tax dollars, then you have right to complain about their lifestyle." But my tax dollars go to handouts for things I think are bad choices all the time to the wealthy! My tax dollars are used to subsidize industries I don't agree with to continue in their wasteful useage of resources. If we are to protest bad decisions begging for handout…

That's not an argument against the point you're replying to. We shouldn't subsidize wastefulness by either the rich or the poor when they make poor choices and squander opportunities and resources.

And I'm arguing that by that reasoning we have much, much bigger fish to fry than the poor.
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