Scarcity

A few weeks ago I wrote about the abundance of abundance in every season and how much it reminds me of M and m's. I feel a little disingenuous about it now that it is in the blogosphere. Scarcity is sometimes a reality. You only have to be a little bit thirsty on the last mile of a long walk to recognise the scarcity of water will not be nullified by the abundance of countryside flowers.

Sometimes, there is a little bit of month left at the end of the money, and that creates very real pressure. I read a study recently that looked at the IQ points of sugar cane farmers in India. Because of the nature of the industry, these farmers find themselves rich after the harvest and poor before it. Their IQs dropped by an average of 13 points in the weeks before the harvest. The stress poverty placed on their cognitive reasoning had a negative impact on their ability to think clearly. 

Scarcity has an impact on cognition. Poor people aren’t poor because they make poor choices. Often they make poor choices because they are poor and do not have the bandwidth to devote themselves to non-essential thought processes that might lead them out of poverty. Scarcity reduces your options. Sometimes, so drastically that you can consider nothing else but the most immediate concerns. 

Going back to my short-lived analogy of the last mile of the walk. There are a few options at that point! Become skilled in cow milking and kidnap a passing heifer, or suck it up and carry it on to the nearest pub. The point is that it overwhelms your brain and there is nothing else you can think of except your growing thirst. Each step is no longer marked by the beauty of your surroundings but rather a rhythmic repetition in your head that says ‘I am thirsty, I am thirsty, I am thirsty.’

I have no answer to this beyond, bearing one another’s burdens. The pressure we can relieve from each other when we just take a moment to sit alongside or invite to share an experience can relieve the impact of scarcity. It can create a moment of clarity simply with your presence. 

https://www.princeton.edu/news/2013/08/29/poor-concentration-poverty-reduces-brainpower-needed-navigating-other-areas-life