Poor People Don’t Have Less Self-Control. Poverty Forces Them to Think Short-Term — according to an article.
I’m sorry but I beg to disagree. Either I missed the context of the article or the concept is completely unacceptable. Because why do I feel like the article implies that a poor person is hopeless because of his dire condition that forces him to think short-term?
If you’re born poor, it’s not your mistake. If you die poor, it’s your mistake.
Bill Gates
If you’re still poor at 35, you deserve it.
Jack ma
These are quotes that, I believe, every poor people should have in mind
These billionaires may not have been ultimately poor, born poor, or didn’t have the privilege to get out of poverty, like any other poor person would give as an excuse, but surely, they didn’t just stood by to get to where they are now. To begin with, Jack Ma was poor. So how did he do it?
A good friend of mine once told me that if I wanted to help a person, who is having difficulties with improving himself and keeps failing at success, I have to understand if the person has a skill or a will issue.
If someone’s skill is an issue, so long as the person is willing, a skill can be learnt and be improved. But if the will isn’t there, whether the person is highly skilled or not, privileged or not, it’s a dead end unless he recovers his will.
The will is the fire, the passion, the determination to make things happen no matter what. A person will try and fail many times, but what matters is that he tries.
If they say that poverty is the reason why poor people tend to think short-term, then they are in a dead loop. Because short-term thinking is what causes poverty. The mindset that causes people to permanently live in the now.
It is understandable that when a person is preoccupied with thinking about what to eat for the following day, it will be hard to think of longer term goals. But it doesn’t have to be so in a single night. That kind of mindset is basically the reason why poor people remain poor.
If you tried to save 10% of whatever you have everyday, a small sacrifice for ten days, you’ll have 100% extra on your 11th day. No matter how small things may seem, if you put them together, it won’t seem small anymore.
This isn’t anything new. There are many out there who have successfully pulled themselves out of the pit. You don’t need to strive to be part of the 1%. There’s a reason it’s called the top 1%. You just have to put extra effort, sacrifice a little, change the way you think, and stack it all together. It’s just like getting fit or getting ripped with 6 pack abs. You can’t get that overnight? You’ll have to work it out!
Privilege
Some people might say, it’s easy to say for those who are privileged. But even if someone has the privilege, if he doesn’t know how to maximize that advantage, he’d most likely end up losing it all and fall down to the very same pit where poor people are trying so hard to escape.
And you can’t make that as an excuse. Someone’s advantage is someone else’s disadvantage. Same as someone’s strength is another’s weakness. If you compare it like that, then you’ve justified that you’re hopeless — not because you are poor, but because your mindset has cursed you to rot in that very pit you’re trying to brave.
Conclusion
So yes, I still blame it on the mindset, not the person. But the person must learn to change his way of thinking; or else, he’ll be doomed in that pit forever.
In My Opinion 