Recent comments in /f/science

Sethuel t1_j7r1x3w wrote

I don't want to say your version never happens, but there are extremely clear and consistent links between childhood trauma and mental illness, and poverty/food insecurity/homelessness are pretty major traumas to experience in childhood.

To the extent that any of us have a "healthy brain," it's because of an environment that has nurtured our cognitive development. It's a lot like how a healthy body comes from a nutritious diet and not fast food (which, not coincidentally, is why wealthy people have far fewer health problems and a longer life expectancy than people who experience poverty).

Genetics and environment interact constantly. Our genetics have some variation but our differences mostly reflect different skill sets and areas of high potential, rather than any one unitary dimension of intelligence. But our environments vary wildly. To "succeed" in our system, you need access to resources that will train and maximize whatever genetic skills you have, and point that training towards the skills that are valued by capitalism. And that's where environmental differences create massive disparities.

Having grown up pretty well-off and going to private school from third grade through college, I do want to acknowledge the pervasiveness of the narrative that our system rewards people who are smarter and more deserving. So I understand where you're coming from. But that upbringing means I've been around a lot of rich people, and I feel extremely comfortable saying the narrative is mostly nonsense. Plenty of people become rich not through intelligence but through being around other rich people and getting better access to the market. Plenty of "smart" rich people often grew up with constant attention devoted to training their brains to solve the kinds of problems that are rewarded by capitalism.

All of which is to say that I understand that you come by your view honestly, but I think perhaps you've been socialized into accepting a particular narrative. And in my experience it's very clearly a narrative that exists to justify inequality as a post-hoc rationalization, rather than a statement that has anything to do with the reality of how most people experience our economic system. The narrative is a collective emotional defense response to protect our egos and tell us we're well-off because we're special. But if we can get ego defense out of the way, the truth is pretty clear that we're mostly just lucky.

I apologize if any of this activates your defenses. It's hard to feel like maybe we've been lied to our whole lives, and we all deserve better than that.

Wishing you the space and freedom to find some truth.

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boynamedsue8 t1_j7qz87c wrote

This finding doesn’t surprise me after doing some digging back in 2018 and reading about the civil rights battle for the ADA and how low of a pay they receive and little accommodations. Even the modern day saint Teresa was a vile and disgusting human being for what she did to the ADA community.

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tossawaybb t1_j7qy7i0 wrote

Because they don't display better behaviors or intelligence as compared to poor families. Plenty of rich drug abusers, flunkies, idiots, and every other negative trait commonly pinned on those with less financial means.

Rich people just don't get hurt by it because they've got the cash to brute force past their problems. Drugs? Go away to a 5 star rehab facility better than most hotels. Job loss? Who cares, the passive income alone is enough for multiple families. Wasting money? Well, easiest way to become a millionaire is to start as a billionaire. Even crimes don't matter if someone's rich enough

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Kelevra29 t1_j7qwtxi wrote

Also mental health disorders usually only get diagnosed if they have significant impairment on daily life. For poor people, that means their mental health is interfering with work and their ability to take care of themselves. A lot of people from wealthy families don't have to worry as much about the executive function side of things because they can afford to have other people do those things for them, so they may not seek treatment.

For example, I have trouble keeping my house clean because of my mental health. Someone with money can hire a cleaner. I can't. So i need to seek alternative measures to be able to do the thing that a wealthy person can just pay for and not worry about.

For a wealthy person, they have to have the introspection to say "i don't feel good, this doesn't feel right" in order to want to seek treatment. Poor people have more extrinsic measures of their mental health before they even get to the introspection stage.

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HungryHungryHobo2 t1_j7qurqf wrote

Correct.
Poor irrational people are crazy.
Rich irrational people are eclectic.

The man on the street corner ranting and raving about gods vengance is insane.
The man on stage in the mega church ranting and raving about gods vengance is impassioned.

Most mental health diagnosis are not objective.
Ten professionals can see the same patient and give them ten different diagnoses.

Most of these include some variety of "Being unable to function in society" by definition, people who are extremely wealthy are not going to meet the criteria of "being dysfunctional" while most extremely impoverished people will.

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