Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age • Hacker News Board

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

#151

Post by heavyset_go » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 6:14 PM UTC

malvosenior wrote: post #108

neilv wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is definitely a culture of anti-intellectualism and escapism among the poor in the US (my background). One likely way to parse that is as a generalization of all poor people, which I think is inaccurate and harmful.

Anyone from a poor background will tell you that this is true in a shockingly large number of cases. Crab bucket mentality is real, bread and circuses are real and most of all anti-intellectualism is definitely real and a core tenant of modern lower class society.

Person from a poor background here. You're generalizing.

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

#152

Post by ddingus » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 6:16 PM UTC

malvosenior wrote: post #135

ddingus wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both of you have valid points. I too am one of those people who overcame a lot early in life. Our choices matter. Of course they do. What is often not discussed is a reasonable, modest life. For many people, that is all they want, and our current society is growing toxic to it. The "game" of life does not need to be as hard as it currently is. Nor does it need to select for extremes. No matter how great our ability t…

> only a fraction of us will do well, and the rest are going to really struggle and that is unnecessary. I'm not entirely sure it's unnecessary. Not everyone can live an upper middle class lifestyle. My main message is that there's culture changes that can and must be enacted within those communities or individuals that will provide opportunity.

Yes, and the system we live under selects away from that.

A majority are struggling today.

Unnecessary.

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

#153

Post by ddingus » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 6:17 PM UTC

malvosenior wrote: post #135

ddingus wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both of you have valid points. I too am one of those people who overcame a lot early in life. Our choices matter. Of course they do. What is often not discussed is a reasonable, modest life. For many people, that is all they want, and our current society is growing toxic to it. The "game" of life does not need to be as hard as it currently is. Nor does it need to select for extremes. No matter how great our ability t…

> only a fraction of us will do well, and the rest are going to really struggle and that is unnecessary. I'm not entirely sure it's unnecessary. Not everyone can live an upper middle class lifestyle. My main message is that there's culture changes that can and must be enacted within those communities or individuals that will provide opportunity.

I strongly disagree. Basic, systemic change is needed.

Blaming people holds no answers.

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

#154

Post by heavyset_go » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 6:18 PM UTC

onion2k wrote: post #47

RobertRoberts wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>...the game is not rigged against those from poor backgrounds Rigged isn't a fair word, it's just reality. Also, as another commenter pointed out, there are people that are successful in a wide range of ways, money is just one of them. And those that had it easy early on often times don't do well later in life when things can get hard. Edit: I spent time on the streets as a teen (yes it affected me) but my siblings…

Rigged isn't a fair word, it's just reality. It's only reality because people accept it. If we stop accepting it the reality can be changed. For example, for several hundred years many people accepted slavery and believed owning people was justifiable. When enough people decided not to accept that reality it was changed fairly quickly.

In the US, the right to use prisoners for slave labor is enshrined in the Constitution.

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

#155

Post by scarface74 » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 6:21 PM UTC

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…

And how many “handouts” do the middle and upper class get via the mortgage deduction and in some states, free college funded by the poor through the lottery?

The poor are not always poor by choice. I won’t even get into poverty caused by unequal sentencing from the same crimes, official government policies with red lining, etc.

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

#156

Post by bsanr2 » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 6:30 PM UTC

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.

Money as it currently exists isn't personal property, it's an instrument for managing debt incurred by economic activity. Higher taxes on you are just society shifting their priorities away from your interests. Sucks for you, but then, it could just be the rebound from society over-subsidizing your lifestyle.

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

#157

Post by ytNumbers » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 6:35 PM UTC

SolaceQuantum wrote: post #150

malandrew wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Here in the USA, we have the best congress money can buy. Politicians are immensely corrupt and quite beholden to their campaign donors. If any member of congress dares to refuse a wealthy organization a favor, that organization can wind up bankrolling someone to primary that member of congress. As long as the supreme court maintains that money is speech, I can see no way to solve the problem of money in politics.

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

#158

Post by heavyset_go » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 6:40 PM UTC

Roark66 wrote: post #31

vertis wrote: post #16

I went through a few years of unstable income in my early twenties (circa 2000), it wasn't altogether bad, just very very sporadic. When I think back on those years I had all kinds of bad behaviours that were not rational. For example, not paying bills because something more urgent might come up. Not looking at balances because it was easier to not know. I would go from feeling rich one month because a freelance clie…

>It took years to shed some of the residual behaviours, even after I started earning decent money. Despite having savings and reliable income I would still let bills run until they were overdue. You wouldn't believe how many "wealthy" people do the exact same thing including not paying their subcontractors etc. My dad used to do electric installations in new built homes. Usually the larger the house and the wealthier…

Worst clients I've ever dealt with were wealthy individuals who didn't delegate or have a board to hold them accountable.

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

#159

Post by AlexTWithBeard » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 6:44 PM UTC

SolaceQuantum wrote: post #147

AlexTWithBeard wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

It's as "fast" as bread and instant coffee.

At least it's cheap, reasonably healthy and tasty.

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

#160

Post by hmschreck » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 6:51 PM UTC

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 cognitive impact of wealth has been pretty well studied, and there is already a very good population being studied for this - farmers in some places are pretty well off immediately after harvest/sale, and just before the next harvest, are usually back to a baseline state, or even struggling to pay bills again. Not only do they exhibit better long-term thinking when they are flush with cash, they tend be overall more cognitively capable.