Krugman: Poverty in Early Childhood Poisons the Brain (literally)

[pnwmom]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/opinion/18krugman.html?em&ex=1203570000&en=bbc3e9fc13b5f690&ei=5087%0A

“Poverty in early childhood poisons the brain.” That was the opening of an article in Saturday’s Financial Times, summarizing research presented last week at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

As the article explained, neuroscientists have found that “many children growing up in very poor families with low social status experience unhealthy levels of stress hormones, which impair their neural development.” The effect is to impair language development and memory — and hence the ability to escape poverty — for the rest of the child’s life.

So now we have another, even more compelling reason to be ashamed about America’s record of failing to fight poverty.

L. B. J. declared his “War on Poverty” 44 years ago. Contrary to cynical legend, there actually was a large reduction in poverty over the next few years, especially among children, who saw their poverty rate fall from 23 percent in 1963 to 14 percent in 1969.

But progress stalled thereafter: American politics shifted to the right, attention shifted from the suffering of the poor to the alleged abuses of welfare queens driving Cadillacs, and the fight against poverty was largely abandoned.

SNIP

[Mark Twain Girl]

1. Thank you for posting this -- exiles in America...

Living in or near poverty has always been a form of exile, of being cut off from the larger society. But the distance between the poor and the rest of us is much greater than it was 40 years ago, because most American incomes have risen in real terms while the official poverty line has not. To be poor in America today, even more than in the past, is to be an outcast in your own country. And that, the neuroscientists tell us, is what poisons a child’s brain.

[pnwmom]

3. And thanks for posting that. That's a key paragraph in the article.

I wish the rules allowed me to post the whole thing.

[surfermaw]

69. Wasn't it in the last par.that mentioned Edwards.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

46. Well, we are not an economic democracy,...hell, we're not even a social democracy.

Imagine what the REAL poverty percentages are, today.

We're not even capable of fathoming conditions before our own eyes, anymore, because we live in a constant stream of misinformation.

It's pitiful.

And we call ours a 'democracy'. What a JOKE!!!

[ihavenobias]

2. This deserves a LOT of Recs! This is exactly the type of info that contradicts conservative BS...

How often do you hear that poor people are just "lazy deadbeats" that CHOOSE to be poor and that we shouldn't support them with our taxes? Having moved to a higher income, conservative suburb outside of Chicago (long story, not exactly my choice) I hear it more and more and it disgusts me.

There are a LOT of people (generally those who grew up solid/upper middle class) who share this obnoxious, myopic worldview. When I ask them if they believe they'd be in the same place (education wise and financially) if they'd been born into poverty and or squalor, they often say "yes" without really thinking about it. They're just incredibly disconnected and the buy into the conservative talking points on the issue.

Ah, it's so aggravating. At any rate, I'll be sure to share this article with anyone who needs to read it.

[pnwmom]

4. I guess people would rather pat themselves on the back for their successes,

than pay attention to the backs they climbed over in the process.

[truedelphi]

6. Inour society, it is the backs that they "stabbed" in the process

Climbing over others is so "yesterday"

[pnwmom]

7. Sometimes it does seem that way. n/t

[tblue37]

5. As Ann Richards said about George Herbert Walker Bush,

"He was born on third base, and he thinks he hit a triple."

[ihavenobias]

37. I love and use that line n/t

[CoffeeCat]

10. There are many good people...

...who are wealthy and who have made their money honestly and they do not live
to impress others.

However, there are untold numbers of middle-class and upper-middle class families who are driving
$40,000 cars and living in McMansions--who cannot afford it. They have no savings, are very cash
poor and their entire lives are financed by credit cards and home-equity loans.

Somewhere along the line, everyone wanted to live rich--and our government--in cahoots with the
banks and the credit-card companies--has allowed everyone to borrow the American dream.

I feel that most of these people know damn well they are one unforeseen financial challenge away
from poverty and losing everything. People are insecure, because they are owned by the credit-card
companies and the banks who own their exorbitant mortgages. This leaves people very anxious
and subconsciously fearing that they could be the ones on the street or living in a one-bedroom
apartment.

That's why poverty is not addressed. People are afraid. They're so insecure about their own financial
positions, that they block out society's socioeconomic realities.

Too many people are running on a treadmill, which is going 10 miles an hour. They're overwhelmed and
self-absorbed in their own anxiety and fear--and this leaves little room for charity, giving, self-awareness
or empathy--the hallmarks of a society that actually cares about those who go without.

[ihavenobias]

13. True, but don't forgot

that the average income for a family peaked in 1973 if you adjust for inflation, and is actually $4,000 lower today. Most Americans have NOT benefited from the large economic growth in the last few decades:

www.nytimes.com/2008/01/19/opinion/19herbert.html?_r=1&em&ex=1200891600&en=e84c9fb476b7ff29&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin

People are more productive but getting paid less, and increasingly benefits are more expensive and or non-existent. Therefore people supplement their incomes with loans and credit card debt. We can argue if they should also live beyond their means in that context but I think that question should be asked after or at least in conjunction with addressing the first issue of falling wages and benefits.

[balantz]

28. And that will be our doom when the economy truly crashes.

Poverty...we ain't seen nothin' yet!

[pnwmom]

26. You're making a lot of sense, TwoSparkles.

People who feel on the edge themselves -- even if it's because of their own excesses -- will have little energy left to care about people who are much worse off.

[varelse]

55. You have absolutely nailed this

What a beautifully written summary of why the war on poverty is not only not being fought, but is so rarely even honestly discussed in mainstream media - or among "middle" americans.

[Theres-a]

64. Eloquent and succinct

Thanks.I know both types of people,and I fear for the ones like me,who have nothing(including debt-whew)and are one disaster away from living on the streets.We own our old cars,have no real savings,and could be in a shelter in a matter of months if anything unforseen came along.Dreadful to contemplate what the ones with something to lose must feel.Although even I have trouble distinguishing if we are among them or not.

I mean we have cars,a rented roof,jobs. What about the others? We are far from middle class,but are we genuinely poor?I was raised in a credit card debt home,my mother was always sick with worry,sometimes we had oatmeal for dinner.She was prone to meanness when it got to be too much for her. Unfortunately,I can relate to this article,I worry way too much about stuff pretty well beyond my control.I never did get a home or new car and I'm 40.Not likely I ever will.I did do alot of traveling,but I imagine those days are over.

Nevertheless,I'm pretty happy most days,in spite of it all.

[teacher gal]

60. agreed n/t

[Hydra]

8. Poverty is prison

With parole...if they feel like it.

[balantz]

30. What does this mean? I'm not sure if I understand your statement.

Are you saying that people in poverty can pull themselves out of it if they feel like it? That was perhaps a little easier a generation ago.

Also, such blanket statements stereotype. No two people; family support; situations; educational opportunities; region & etc. are the same.

[Hydra]

33. I think you probably misunderstood

Being in poverty is like being in prison- everyone else controls you life in various ways, and you don't get let out unless someone "above" you says so...which is rare, and getting rarer.

Poverty is a cage that people say the person deserves. Nice job of beating the victim, no?

[balantz]

34. The beating down is standard protocol in this selfish, elitist society.

Thanks for clearing that up. I misunderstood. I thought I remembered your posts to be more evolved and coming from wisdom. I'm still kind of new here, and sometimes a little dense:P

:hi:

[Hydra]

35. Heh, I was being a bit sleepy with the comparison

So it was partly my fault. "Prison" usually is linked to a crime, so therefore is seen as a "just" punishment. I don't tend to see it that way since so many of the people who get put there are innocent or light offenders, so it was a bad metaphor to be used in general company :p

Btw, I'm glad you like my posts- most of the time I just feel like I'm disturbing people from their happy illusions :evilgrin:

[balantz]

36. Carry on! Keep up the good work!

:evilgrin: :thumbsup: :kick:

[bobbolink]

45. You have put that so well!

In the abusive low-income building I was living in, I started calling it a "prison". I said that one day, and one of the other tenants said, "You're the fifth person today who has called this building a prison."

I have read your post 3 times now, and it is ELOQUENT! It really describes my situation!

"unless someone above you says so"

:cry:

It's a wonder there isn't *more* violence!

[Hydra]

48. Thanks!

And there IS lots of violence- the poor have no voice though, so it never sees the light of day.

I hate it "on the inside" myself. I've been swatted down 3 times today- twice by state services people for being "greedy" and from my boss for asking for pay I'm overdue. Can't work your way out, and can't get state help out. Stuck.

[bobbolink]

49. Hurrah for Hydra being "greedy"!

That's almost as good as me being so danged angry.

:rofl:

No, there are NO resources to help right the wrongs. I've become convinced that we need MUCH MORE legal help! It's the the only Clue-by-four that gets their attention!

People actually don't believe that there was NO HELP for the physical abuse in the building I was in. They actually think I"m making it up. (How could I possibly make up the officer's name, though.... Snow White. I mean, you just can't make up stuff like that...hehehe)

It still makes me feel crazy to think that in this day and age, there is NO PLACE to turn for abuse with a senior and disabled building.

:cry:

You go! I'm cheering for ya, for whatever that's worth! :applause:

[Hydra]

50. Ya, welcome to wonderland

Most people have NO IDEA what it's like down here. I can't believe these state people telling me I'm making too much money to qualify when I'm providing sole support for a disabled relative.

They act like I'm swimming in cash or something!

As for abuse, it's like the other great lie here in america- "The land of opportunity, the land of justice"

[izquierdista]

9. America, the big crabpot

There was a restaurant in Los Angeles' Chinatown that I used to frequent that specialized in seafood and they had a 50 gallon aquarium full of crabs right by the front door (no water in it, just lots and lots of crabs). The crabs would all pile in one corner trying to escape from their enclosure and yet, I never saw one make an actual escape over the walls of the tank so he could head back to the beach in Santa Monica. I asked the waiter if one ever succeeded in not becoming dinner and he laughed. Oh, no, he explained, once one gets a claw on the top rail to pull himself over, the others will make sure to pull him back down into the tank.

Once an American has made it to the upper class, the hell with the rest of the crabs in the tank, he climbed out on his own, don't you know!

[Maat]

11. That was a great way of putting it!

I really became aware of how the whole system worked when I was a social worker ('93-2000 - retired in 2000). Maybe if many middle class and upper class Americans worked with the poor, they would have their collective heads pulled out of Fantasyland.

[notadmblnd]

12. Most often, they pull you back with them. Remember, misery loves company

it has happened that way for me. When husband was alive we made over 100k a year. Now I have two extended family members living with me, not working. What can I do, (when times got tough, their men ran out on them) see them living on the streets? I'm living on 1/3 of what we used to make and struggle to make ends meet by juggling the bills month to month. For now, I still have my claws on the edge of the tank, but I can see very clearly, them pulling me back in with them.

[Angela Shelley]

15. Just say "NO".

You are in control of your world.

You have the right and responsibility to set your limits.

:-)

[izquierdista]

19. Yes, it does work that way.

Were you safely on the other side of the tank, you could reach back in and pull them out one by one. That never happened at the restaurant either.

[pnwmom]

20. Oh geez.

Sorry to hear that. Do they have good reasons for not being able to work? It doesn't seem fair for you to have to do it all alone.

[notadmblnd]

23. They're so far unable to find employment.

One has found a job recently, but 12 hours a week doesn't even get gas in the tank to go look. We live in Michigan and things are horrible here economically. Competition for what few jobs there are, is fierce.

I'm sure there a many worse off than we are. I'm just having a little pity party for myself today, I think it's the weather, I'm in need of a major dose of sunshine.

[pnwmom]

25. I would say that

having lost a husband, and now being the sole support of three people, you deserve a pity party whenever you need one.


:hug:

[otherlander]

43. ...

:hug:

[SoCalDem]

14. PTSD is not only a wartime phenomenon

If you see your Mom getting beaten up every day, or YOU are mistreated as a child, or neglected..or if you spend your days wondering if there's going to be food on the table tonight, your brain goes into survival mode...

Small kids spend a LOT of time figuring out ways to cover up the abuse/neglect going on at home too. NO kid wants to be "different", and if there's poverty & deprivation going on at home, they literally have to construct TWO selves.. the self they show at school and with friends, and the self they are at home...Not a healthy way to grow up..

Not all poor families are abusive, but with poverty, it's more likely that a single mom will hook up with some schmuck she HOPES will "help out"... they rarely "help"..

[pnwmom]

17. What a cute picture!

Sorry -- but that picture almost made me forget your thoughtful post.

[NMMNG]

16. Fuck you very much Ronnie Raygun

But progress stalled thereafter: American politics shifted to the right, attention shifted from the suffering of the poor to the alleged abuses of welfare queens driving Cadillacs, and the fight against poverty was largely abandoned.

Yet another of his wonderful legacies that millions continue to suffer for. :puke:

[pnwmom]

18. Hey, you!

:hi:

[NMMNG]

21. Hey there!

:hi:

I swear we'll be cleaning up after the RRRW for the next century. :-(

[pnwmom]

24. For the next 10,000 years, if McCain has his way.

Aren't you ready for the Dems to stop fighting each other? I am so sick of this primary season, and it could go on through the summer.

[bobbolink]

47. What's sad is how few "liberals" realize how much of his shit they swallowed on this!

Their views show them to truly be Raygun Democrats.

:puke: indeed!

[kineneb]

22. in the late 60s, grandpa made $10k/yr, now that is poverty level

we (I lived with my granparents) thought we were doing well. And we were.

I have a disabled friend who lives on $10k/yr.; she does not eat right, because she cannot afford to do so. By the time she pays rent and utilities, she has $40 per month for food.

To qualify for California's CMSP (rural adult medical coverage), a couple cannot have more than $934/month income. Above that, all medical expenses are paid out as share-of-cost. That income level has not been changed for 10 years! So to get coverage, one had to be destitute, or they soon become destitute.

Now, all the available jobs are low paying, part time and without benefits. Of course, children are sinking back into poverty.

[xxqqqzme]

31. I hear you. My former spouse

was getting $10K/yr in 1970 and we thought we had arrived. We were actually able to save money.


In '95, I was getting $50K/yr as a single parent and life was comfortable - able to help the kids when they needed it - that sort of thing. Then I was disabled in an auto accident. I'm know I'm lucky. I can supplement my SS disability. I receive the max amount but I certainly couldn't live on it.

[balantz]

27. Poverty is a crime in the wealthiest nation on the planet.

Our citizens and their good health are the top asset of our nation, and should be the number one priority. And I mean ALL of our citizens. If we are to stop pretending to be a Democracy, and instead actually be one by producing a vibrant, healthy and educated citizenry, this nation would begin to blossom and flourish as the land of the free as it was intended to. The elitism in this country is our demise. We must take back this nation for ALL Americans.

POVERTY IS A CRIME!!!!

[DiverDave]

29. Hell, I knew we were poor

but everyone around us was poor too, so I thought little of it.

[pnwmom]

32. That makes a huge difference.

It's like hearing stories about when my 92 year old relative was a kid -- no one feels particularly deprived or isolated when everyone else around them is in the same boat.

[pamela]

38. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for posting this.

[Beaverhausen]

39. How many people could be helped with the $200Million plus being spent on this election?

It's sinful what we spend our money on in this country.

God, what could have been had John Edwards stayed in the race...

[knitter4democracy]

41. I think about that all the time.

It's serious money, and what does it get spent on? Travel costs, aides and top helpers in the campaign, clothes, but most of all, advertising. Do the advertisers really need that much money? What if we took that money and did some real good with it?

[personman]

52. or the trillion being spent killing people in Iraq, and enriching a small minority here?

Look at the way Cuba prioritizes human need...if the US was a third world country most of us would have probably died already. Almost 50 years of economic terrorism by the US...and their infant mortality rate is LOWER then ours.

Richest country on earth with military spending rivaling that of the rest of the world, why do we care so little about our people?

But take your pick of the most demonized, supposedly-despotic nations, and they don't lock up as high a proportion of their population as we do.

[pnwmom]

53. That's a better use of money than what we've been handing over to Halliburton

and the rest of the war profiteers.

[Beaverhausen]

56. well still- it's an obscene amount of money - and it's going to the networks

mostly, who as we know, are owned by corporations, and so on and so on...

think of how many schools could be improved, or housing built with that money.

[pnwmom]

57. I guess the way I think about it is that it's

less than $1 per citizen. That wouldn't bother me, if it would guarantee a fair election -- but obviously it doesn't.

[smokey nj]

40. K&R

[knitter4democracy]

42. This is really scary.

More and more children are being raised in poverty, going hungry, you name it these days. Their parents are going hungry and working themselves to the bone, the kids are under too darn much stress and don't have enough to eat, and other adults are seriously hurting, too.

It's time for a radically different way of doing things in America. It's time to kick out the fascists, get some real laws passed to control the corporations, and get the corporations to actually pay their taxes so we can feed our people. So we can house our people (not build more shelters, since they don't work). So we can pay our people a living wage, whether that's at a job or for SSDI or Soc. Security.

[katty]

44. plausible, but Charles Dickens turned his childhood deprivation

into a 19th C. goldmine.

[pnwmom]

54. So he's the exception

that proves the rule.

[katty]

66. thank you for lecturing me on that point as if needed it

[flashl]

51. K&R nt

[varkam]

58. This is very interesting stuff, especially in the context of a study released last year...

that shows that the "American Dream" of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is largely a myth. If you're born poor, you're probably going to die that way, too

[teacher gal]

59. Go here

if you'd like for some information very relevant to this issue....the convenient claim that better or more education is the ticket out of poverty.

http://aplacetorespond.blogspot.com/2008/01/were-number-one-erin-childhood-poverty.html

[pnwmom]

61. Great article. Have you posted it on its own thread in GD?

I think it deserves one.

[teacher gal]

62. Hi

I'm in a big hurry before I go off to work....I THINK I did post it as its own thread a few weeks back but I'm not sure. I'll check back tonight. BTW, thank you!

[pnwmom]

63. Have a good day in the trenches!

Way back when I was in college, I took an adolescent psych class in which the final exam asked some question about what should be done with the schools. I had gone to private high school, so I answered that it was less a question of not knowing how to make a good school -- good schools like my own proved that -- and more about the fact that the jobs for well educated people were limited. By not making an excellent education available to everyone, we could convince people to blame themselves for the fact that they hadn't succeeded in life -- it was their fault for not getting an education.

Unfortunately, since then the problem has gotten so much bigger, and the solutions so much more elusive.

[McCamy Taylor]

68. Not just any college degree will do. Advanced degree is much better. Medical profession

esp. for people who speak Spanish is what I would suggest for any young person who wants to be assured of work. Now that universal health care is so close that we can almost taste it, there will be a tremendous need for all kinds of health care workers--from primary care physicians to nurses to physical therapists, dietitians, pharmacist, respiratory therapists.

If you already speak Spanish and you go to school to study one of these professions, you will be able to work anywhere and change jobs whenever you want.

The advanced degree makes a big difference in terms of salary on the average, too. It is a hassle, but it is the great equalizer in this country. It eliminates the income disparity that exists between Black and White, for example.

[varelse]

70. thank you for the link

I wish I'd skipped reading the comment left by "Russ, the corporate tax specialist" though.

[Elspeth]

65. The neurological creation of a permanent underclass?

Evil, pure evil.

[McCamy Taylor]

67. I'm an MD, MPH, Krugman is right. And income disparity--being poor in a wealth country--makes it

even worse. For years science has documented a host of medical problems for people in all countries who grow up and live under the burden of poverty in affluent countries. These include lower life expectancies than people who live in the same degree of poverty in countries where everyone is poor. For example, a classic study showed that a young man in Harlem had a lower life expectancy than a young man in Bangladesh. The infant mortality rates for African-American women in some US cities is higher than in Jamaica. Specific causes of increased illness and early death include all forms of violence esp. domestic violence---family and spouse violence brought on by stress from the effects of living in a world where you are treated as disposable and where every day is a fight for survival, stress related illness which can include medical disease such as premature birth of infants, high blood pressure, use of tobacco, alcohol and drugs, the last of which can cause other medical problems such as heart, lung, liver disease and AIDS, depression triggered by years of stress and by childhood violence (the connection here has been well documented) which can also trigger alcohol and drug abuse, impaired mental function, inability to succeed at school and on the job and ultimately suicide . In addition, despair can lead to reckless lifestyle choices such as failure to plan ahead, finish school (education is the great equalizer in the US--an advanced degree corrects the income disparity between Whites and minority groups), get insurance, pay attention to food nutrition, exercise, vote, take advantage of what government school assistance and insurance programs are available (esp. if the social workers who administer these program treat the poor like "trash").

So the "poverty" of America, which may not look as severe as the poverty in countries where people live in dire poverty but where people exist in solidarity with each other, is actually a very serious disease and needs to be treated as such.

[teacher gal]

71. Thank you for your insights here and the info!

And something that I believe is badly neglected and seldom mentioned is lead poisoning. I suspect many thousands of our nation's poor children who live in old housing in inner cities are literally being poisoned.

Readers, please check out "A Strange Ignorance"....you may be shocked:
http://www.azsba.org/static/index.cfm?action=group&contentID=148

[ulysses]

72. set foot in a title 1 school

and you know. Yup.

I'm just sorry I was too late to add a rec.

[teacher gal]

73. I want to

give this a kick and get it up there close to the other thread on poverty.

[teacher gal]

74. kick