Friday 18 October 2013

Blog post 6: Living in poverty exerts a high cognitive toll on families

This notice talk about how the poverty exerts a high cognitive toll on families because children are  mentally and emotionally depleted by living on scant resources.
Andrew is a little boy that with his "singing shoes" and he´s one of Britain's 1.6 million children living in severe poverty. Chronic poverty causes health difficulties, educational failure, mental health challenges, and impoverished aspirations because the overexposure to stress has negative consequences on physical and emotional development.

About the consequences, there is a theory of causation that  concerns a kind of cognitive depletion, a sort of cognitive tax on the poor people. The constant preoccupation with the difficulty generated as a result of not having appropriate resources narrows down thinking, focusing attention on the concern at hand. This intense and concentrated use of energy reduces a person's mental bandwidth, preventing them from managing effectively other areas of their lives, because worry is consuming them.
Some scientists believe Andrew's preoccupation with lack of appropriate clothing could be potentially comparable to losing a night's sleep, or the difference between the performance capacities of an alcoholic versus a normal adult.

People who are relentlessly living in distressing circumstances, this cognitive overload is likely to lead to exhaustion and a sort of despair which can manifest itself in poor self-control. At some point, Andrew may get fed up enough to finally steal a new pair of shoes.

As a summary, a toxic combination of lack of safety and chronic poverty is depleting people (young people). They are too tired to be good, to make an extra effort, to try harder. It is at this point that they are prepared to discard everything.

Governments are preoccupied with lowering taxes for the rich, while emotionally over-taxing the poor. It will cost.

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