How Poverty Makes Workers Less Productive
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Re: How Poverty Makes Workers Less Productive
#2Not being able to focus on what you're doing is enough to decrease productivity. Even for non-intelectual jobs.
Other mechanisms can be light depression, impossibility to rest when not working or inability to improve qualification.
Re: How Poverty Makes Workers Less Productive
#3>We've written before in the Planet Money newsletter about growing evidence that our welfare programs may not be up to the task. A study last year by the California Policy Lab found evidence that a huge percentage of poverty-stricken Californians are not getting the Earned Income Tax Credit because of the difficulty of filling out tax forms. Mullainathan and his colleagues' work is a reminder that policymakers should recognize the cognitive burden on many of those who live in poverty and make it easier for them to get assistance.
Re: How Poverty Makes Workers Less Productive
#4Poverty also makes learning difficult. Students shouldering numerous burdens of poverty are simply not prioritizing education over day to day survival. We talk a lot about how the US is falling behind in education. Well, solving poverty is a key component of that puzzle.
Re: How Poverty Makes Workers Less Productive
#5[deleted]
Re: How Poverty Makes Workers Less Productive
#6I agree with this on principle, but I just can't shake the feeling that this sort of conveniently "incidentally" leftist NPR story is slanted, and therefor untrustworthy. I've been gaslit by too much media for too long to trust anything I read from anything even slightly mainstream. Everything is politically compromised, with few exceptions (WHO, CDC, UN, the list goes on).
Re: How Poverty Makes Workers Less Productive
#7> The researchers then monitored the workers' on-the-job performance, comparing them to a group of workers that didn't get paid upfront. The researchers find that the workers who were paid upfront were significantly more productive, making 6.2% more plates per hour. The biggest effect was seen with the poorest workers. Even more, the plates they made were less likely to be marred by mistakes, indicating they were more attentive on the job.
> The authors conclude that giving workers cash upfront helped alleviate the mental burden of their financial problems and freed them to be more productive. It echoes findings from other studies on the psychological consequences of poverty, but it is novel because it looked at the effects of it at a real job rather than in a laboratory setting.
I'm not sure I would come up with that conclusion based on the study. My interpretation would be that the workers were grateful for the advance or felt there was a catch. But then again, if you had the opposite effect you could argue that they had no accountability. Or a more narrow interpretation would be that workers that are paid up front are more productive. That's the problem with interpreting these studies, you can always make a story.
I think it would the argument for the debt alleviation would just be a cash grant, not tied to the work. I'm not sure why they didn't do that.
Re: How Poverty Makes Workers Less Productive
#8[deleted]
Re: How Poverty Makes Workers Less Productive
#9The US doesn’t care about productivity but more about maintaining some sort of class system. It took me a while to realize this.
Also a surprising number of people in the US believe that poverty is a moral failure of some sort. I never actually understood this.
Re: How Poverty Makes Workers Less Productive
#10This is going to sound egotistical, but it's not intended that way, just the experience of your average prole.
The times that I have been the most successful, most motivated, most driven, most productive, and most useful, in study, career, relationships, and life, have tracked exactly with periods in which I've gotten out what I've put in.
When I started my career and a company took a chance on me - we absolutely killed it, I was paid well for the time, everyone was happy.
When I moved on and was given the respect and decision making ability that I wanted - same thing. Absolutely smashed it out of the park, money flowing from every plug socket.
Whenever I've been in a working environment that has cost cutting, or bureaucratic bollocks, or management that decide what's best for the employees rather than asking them - my productivity has been horrendous, the company has lost money.
Every single time I've worked without return - burnout. Every time, without fail.
This extends outside of work. The last year has been a period in which I've gone from wanting to take part in society, work on big problems like climate change, sacrifice for the greater good, donate my time and money, to just thinking - you know what?
No-one outside of your immediate circle cares. They never did, and never will. They will throw you under the bus immediately and comprehensively as soon as there's even the slightest microscopic threat to their wellbeing.
And they'll cast the blame on you. They'll say it's your failing. They'll say - never mind our responsibilities to you - you need to do your bit regardless.
Well, you know what? Fuck you guys, I'm getting mine now.