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realfuzzhead



Registered: 03/03/10
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Sick of Poverty
#14569206 - 06/06/11 12:30 PM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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Really, really good article. It examines reasons as to why poorer people live shorter and less healthy lives than wealthy people. What they find is that most of the obvious answers hold very little ground, and that "Feeling poor" may have a much greater impact on your health then actually have very little material possesions
https://www.georgiastandards.org/resources/Lexile_in_Action_CTAE/HS-IHS-6_1260_Sick-of-Poverty.pdf
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Ima Trooper
Chilldog Extraordinaire



Registered: 02/21/08
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Very interesting. I myself feel very acutely the differences between the "haves" and the "have-nots", with myself being in the latter category. Not a day goes by that I don't feel sick to my stomach knowing that I can't get many things that it seems the well-to-do enjoy effortlessly. I live in a college town, and the amount of college aged "kids" I see driving around in brand new BMW's and Mercedes is ridiculous.
A week ago I saw someone who couldn't be more than 29 driving around in a yellow Ferrari.
I don't understand what these people have that I don't, other than perhaps rich parents. Sometimes I really can't stand it, I have holes in my walls that can attest to this. I try to keep it under wraps but I'm just not a person who can see all this wealth around me and be content with being denied it.
-------------------- "Its moving of its own accord...and I like that in a shirt!" - Me, tripping. deCypher said: Schizophrenia beats dining alone, you know.
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realfuzzhead



Registered: 03/03/10
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yeah man its true.. its hwy I want to get into a field that I love doing so that my job won't really be about money, it'll be more like getting paid to play or have fun.. enjoy what im doing
What sucks alot is that so many different isolated cultures fared wonderfully, and used their recourses responsibly before westerners came in. Now that they are doing manual labor for pay and are seeing the immense wealth of the foreigners they too are suffering health wise.
its just a mess
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danielx
whatup!


Registered: 10/13/08
Posts: 6,500
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its hard to eat healthy when you are poor. Healthy food is expensive, and cheap food leads to heart disease and other ailments.
-------------------- Long live kratom
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realfuzzhead



Registered: 03/03/10
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Re: Sick of Poverty [Re: danielx]
#14569358 - 06/06/11 01:11 PM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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true true. But they covered most reasons such as that and a lot of them didnt hold weight.
Why would a rich person of a poor country who makes less then a poor person of a rich country live significantly longer?
and why did isolates tribes have long, healthy lives on bare subsistence diet, only to lose health when exposed to consumerism.
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blujay
pass it b*ch!



Registered: 04/01/09
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Last seen: 8 years, 5 months
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Quote:
Ima Trooper said: Very interesting. I myself feel very acutely the differences between the "haves" and the "have-nots", with myself being in the latter category. Not a day goes by that I don't feel sick to my stomach knowing that I can't get many things that it seems the well-to-do enjoy effortlessly. I live in a college town, and the amount of college aged "kids" I see driving around in brand new BMW's and Mercedes is ridiculous.
A week ago I saw someone who couldn't be more than 29 driving around in a yellow Ferrari.
I don't understand what these people have that I don't, other than perhaps rich parents. Sometimes I really can't stand it, I have holes in my walls that can attest to this. I try to keep it under wraps but I'm just not a person who can see all this wealth around me and be content with being denied it.
I know the feeling intimately. While my peers take flights to British Colombia and Cancun, drive Nissan 350z's and have 40+" plasma (and I do mean plasma, as in bought before the prices dropped and LCD became the clear victor) screens hooked up to all three next-gen consoles each with with 4 controllers and all the latest games, I get yelled at for spending $35 on a used second game controller- and have to live in constant agony of the day my ~$140 monitor burns out, because I'm broke and nobody would spend that money on me. It's going to happen. The thing has started banding. Couple years left probably.
The sad thing is, I have worked loads of jobs, but because I am a genuinely good person I haven't squandered the majority of that money on myself, when I'm sure I could have gotten away with it. There were times when vices ate a few hundred dollars, but that's the cost of a good time so many of my peers shrug off without so much as a second thought.
I try really hard not to be jealous, and usually it's no problem. Most people are modest enough to understand flaunting their spoiled nature isn't a good idea. But every now and then I manage to fall into a conversation with someone who thinks they're better than me because their parents can buy them access to a frat house, a crotch rocket, and matching 2010 all-wheel-drive Jeep. They measure my worth by the fact that I can't afford American Eagle and Fox, and even though I am smart enough to realize spending $50 on a shirt makes you an idiot; those are still some damn nice shirts.
At the end of the day I lay down and I have to remind myself that even if I just barely make the cut, being above that line even by a millimeter is more than 90% of people in the world could ever hope to achieve. I've seen the squalor the honestly poor have to live with and how living on minimum wage impacts their lives. I know and keep friends with a few people in that situation. Beyond superfluous material possessions, they are forced to live without such simple and basic services as dental maintenance, optical exams, and the like. A thirty minute procedure such as drilling a cavity that shouldn't cost more than fifty bucks by any reasonable terms costs hundreds and is in many cases beyond their reach. They have to watch the teeth fall out of their mouths while these spoiled frat fuckers blast past their decrepit trailers in JDM cars with swapped engines and screaming fart-can exhausts. I can completely understand how living adjacent to the opulently wealthy can make the circumstance they're in worse, if only in a psychological way.
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  wat man rly
Edited by blujay (06/06/11 01:30 PM)
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realfuzzhead



Registered: 03/03/10
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Re: Sick of Poverty [Re: blujay]
#14569427 - 06/06/11 01:26 PM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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Growing up in a decently wealthy family makes you realize that money =/= happiness. Alot of people (IMO) who grow up in a lower class setting spend all their time trying to get money, and someitmes dont realize till to late that money=/= happiness.
idk
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blujay
pass it b*ch!



Registered: 04/01/09
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Quote:
realfuzzhead said:

Growing up in a decently wealthy family makes you realize that money =/= happiness. Alot of people (IMO) who grow up in a lower class setting spend all their time trying to get money, and someitmes dont realize till to late that money=/= happiness.
idk
You would change your tune if you reach the point where you could no longer afford a new air conditioning / heating unit, basic medical treatment, means of transportation, or many of the other basic necessities required to operate in our restrictively designed societal standards. You really can fall through the cracks. I've gone down there and talked to the people, and they're not all there by their own mistakes. Being born into poverty can honestly doom you to a life where you have to suffer through lots of things I consider unreasonable.
There is a minimum amount of money required to be happy, unless you just go all stoic and "deal with it" while you watch your own body waste from underneath you. Unfortunately, most people born into a consumer society aren't capable of simply switching on their Tibetan Monk.
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  wat man rly
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realfuzzhead



Registered: 03/03/10
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Re: Sick of Poverty [Re: blujay]
#14569481 - 06/06/11 01:37 PM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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yeah true true.
damn man.. consumerism..
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badchad
Mad Scientist

Registered: 03/02/05
Posts: 13,372
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Good point(s) but I'd be curious on how they measured "psychosocial stress.
A poor person might be stressed by a shitty job and the thought that "if the car doesn't start, I'll lose my job".
Who says this scenario is any more (or less) stressful than a physician who receives a patient at the ER who thinks: "This persons life is in my hands".
Or the white collar consultant who thinks "the market is down today, I've lost 250k".
I'd propose that different SES levels bring their own sets of stressors and that chronic stress levels may not be significantly different.
-------------------- ...the whole experience is (and is as) a profound piece of knowledge. It is an indellible experience; it is forever known. I have known myself in a way I doubt I would have ever occurred except as it did. Smith, P. Bull. Menninger Clinic (1959) 23:20-27; p. 27. ...most subjects find the experience valuable, some find it frightening, and many say that is it uniquely lovely. Osmond, H. Annals, NY Acad Science (1957) 66:418-434; p.436
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blujay
pass it b*ch!



Registered: 04/01/09
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Unfortunately, I believe there is no solution. Lots of improvements could be made, but it seems to me an inherent side-effect of the way we live.
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  wat man rly
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danielx
whatup!


Registered: 10/13/08
Posts: 6,500
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lets face it, we as a society generally perpetuate poverty. Take the poor desolate African countries for example, natural selection and nature in general would state that since these people have a lack of food, water, and a means to live, that most would die off and quit reproducing. However, as a society we have "wars against poverty" where we send resources and food such as rice. In essence, we are going against nature by doing so. Keeping them just alive to reproduce, and spread poverty.
So are we doing more harm then good fighting this war on poverty? Are we going against nature? A few things I often ponder...
-------------------- Long live kratom
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realfuzzhead



Registered: 03/03/10
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Re: Sick of Poverty [Re: danielx]
#14569511 - 06/06/11 01:44 PM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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idk man. The thing is, most of these people were able to feed themselves and live comfortably before colonialism.
Damn I have so read so many good articles this year in my anthro class, I read one that talked about how we dont have wealthy countries because they excell and poor countries because they have some deficiency, they are poor because we are rich, two sides of the same coin.
By taking their land and taking away their means of subsitance, we force them to grow our cash crops. Instead of having a crop of sweet potatoes and small herds to eat, and be able to maintain their traditional customs, we force them to accept the monetary system and work for chump change.
So littlerally, by us being wealthy we are taking away their ability to feed themselves.
Idk man.. reading about colonialism makes my spine shiver.
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i like cow poo
Nature Lover


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yeah I don't think being poor is fun if you spend all your time trying to become rich. Honestly healthy food, a decent house, and some crude form of transportation is all I should really need.(costs a decent amount in America) I think poor countries have happier populations because they don't have a MATERIALISTIC belief system. They are content with having family and friends. Just my crude theory of it all. I think capatilistic societies are set up to agitate the poor. I don't think being poor inherently equals unhappiness. Some very poor Buddhist monks are VERY happy.
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danielx
whatup!


Registered: 10/13/08
Posts: 6,500
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Quote:
realfuzzhead said: idk man. The thing is, most of these people were able to feed themselves and live comfortably before colonialism.
yeah, which ultimately proves my point. There wasnt this huge population boom before colonialism. In essence, we as a society perpetuate poverty by going against nature.
-------------------- Long live kratom
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