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What Really Keeps Poor People Poor
21–30 of 149 posts
Re: What Really Keeps Poor People Poor
#22There are a few reasons that poor people remain poor. Math: The fact is that it's much more difficult to make $10,000 from nothing than it is to make $1M when you have $1B to use. Experience: When you're poor, the odds are very good that you don't know anyone who is successful(let alone "rich") so there isn't the chance to find out what it takes to be successful. Plus, when you have no experience you need to work you…
Economist Samuel Bowles and his colleagues have found the single most important determinant of economic success in America is "one's choice of parents".
I blogged about Bowles & his work here: http://londoncreativelabs.com/blog/2010/3/28/insights-into-e...
Re: What Really Keeps Poor People Poor
#23I come from an officially poor background, but it wasn't until I started learning about my girlfriend's family back in her native, third-world country that I really got a sense for what third-world poverty is: - Constant verbal, physical, sometimes sexual abuse--the stuff that really traumatizes people into doing these same things across generations. This isn't the stuff you learn about in the news because, sadly, to…
The network is important in part because of the dominant cultural norms it has. Those norms will be anti-economic for the poor. Moving into a network where you become immersed in pro-economic cultural norms can make all the difference.
Also the pro-economic network will create & broker economic opportunities, whether they be internships, jobs, startup co-founding, access to investment etc.
The work of Samuel Bowles & Herbert Gintis touch on this.
Re: What Really Keeps Poor People Poor
#24I come from an officially poor background, but it wasn't until I started learning about my girlfriend's family back in her native, third-world country that I really got a sense for what third-world poverty is: - Constant verbal, physical, sometimes sexual abuse--the stuff that really traumatizes people into doing these same things across generations. This isn't the stuff you learn about in the news because, sadly, to…
This is my experience(not coming from a poor family, but from closely knowing poor friends at various times) as well. Even if you mean the best for yourself, after growing up in an impoverished environment, you get trapped in a prison of your own creation - low self-esteem, violent rebellion, drug or sexual abuse - that leads you straight into poverty again.
Re: What Really Keeps Poor People Poor
#25I think the person who wrote this article should read about the history of imperialism and colonization of the non-white world. The quote: "...doing what we can to teach kids from impoverished backgrounds not just how to read and write but how to become upwardly mobile in their networking" really demonstrates a lot of historical ignorance.
Anyway, regarding this topic, there's an entire field of academia which regularly studies intergenerational economic mobility (Sociology). Would anyone familiar enough with the field like to provide us with a paper on this topic? (Preferably about the US)
Re: What Really Keeps Poor People Poor
#26Many factors in poor staying poor. The High Cost of Poverty: Why the Poor Pay More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05... Poor people spend 9% of income on lottery tickets; here's why: http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/05/31/poor-people-spend-9... Missing poverty's new reality: There's a lot less of it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01...
Your first link is full of fail. You [a hypothetical poor person] don't have a car to get to a supermarket... 70% of the poor own a car, 25% own two cars. When you are poor, you don't have the luxury of throwing a load into the washing machine... 64% of the poor do have that luxury. http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/h150-07.pdf It only gets worse from that point on. The poor can't get free supermarket discount card…
Interesting data! Thanks for your input, For lack of a better opinion, I've been focusing on improving this stuff because of the relative ease.
Re: What Really Keeps Poor People Poor
#27Networking can mean two different things and the author's conflating them.
1. You have a connection with a successful professional and so you're closer to promising job opportunities.
2. Your social circle contains a lot of rich people who have the habits and lifestyle typical of the rich, and you absorb a lot of their behavior by osmosis, which helps you succeed.
It's really hard to extend the benefits of the second kind of "networking" to more than a few poor people, and usually they have to be children. (Prep for Prep, college admissions decisions.)
On the other hand, it would be quite possible to develop online institutions to help with the first kind of networking. Create alternative, non-college ways to signal ability, and create ways for employers to connect with those able but isolated people. (I'm working on a project that has applications in that direction.)
Re: What Really Keeps Poor People Poor
#28Is it access to the networks, or that the networks are a fixed size?
To put it another way: one might say the reason people cannot get into university is they score too low on their grades -- so the solution is to get everyone the training to enable them to score higher. Except then the universities will simply set the entrance threshold higher.
Re: What Really Keeps Poor People Poor
#29He stretches the point a bit far. When he's talking about "isolation" broadly, I can maybe see the point -- lack of role models, mentors, references, people to help get your foot in the door at your first job. (I have no idea if this is "what really keeps poor people poor.") Then he uses "network" to mean what you get at Harvard or Yale, and suggests that this is a gating factor, that masses of people have everything…
I don't think it's that much of a stretch. When you're poor and you're around other poor people there is no one there to recognize your potential and bring you into the fold (job, connections, inform you of opportunities available). You're just a clever person other poor people know. There's a big difference between knowing small business owners in the neighborhood and knowing friends of wealthy and or well connected…
Networks expand returns on ability. They allow people to find better places for their skills, better access to employees and capital and expertise. But they do very little for people who lack ability in the first place. An
"in" with a hedge fund or VC or a big law firm won't get anyone anywhere without the ability to deliver the goods. Networks work by filtering. That country club golf partner doesn't think to mention his buddy in your field if he doesn't think that buddy will find you impressive. And if he did, his buddy wouldn't be very interested in his introductions.
Re: What Really Keeps Poor People Poor
#30It's not just having access to networks, it's using them. Can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
All too often I see, from first hand experience, the poor and the middle class having the same opportunities: broadly speaking, the latter take advantage thereof, the former don't.
Sure, some networks are not accessible. Many are, and if one does not take advantage of what opportunities one does have, then more will not become available.