Unsteady income in young adulthood linked to thinking problems in middle age
Cue the &quot;I was from a poor family and I got into Stanford, everybody should be able to it&quot; from people who don&#x27;t understand how life, statistics, outliers, and relative effort required (for a middle&#x2F;class rich kid playing in &quot;easy mode&quot; to succeed, versus a poor kid playing the &quot;extra hard mode&quot;).<p>People who confuse what&#x27;s possible but 10x more difficult for some income groups&#x2F;backgrounds, to be the same as being equally possible and as easy. Or that think that just because some outliers managed to win the hard mode, everybody should be able to (and are just lazy if they don&#x27;t) - while ignoring lucky breaks and mitigating circumstances in their case, e.g. you might be poor, but not have a parent sick to take care of. Or you might be an immigrant, but have parents working their ass off to get you to college. Or you might have a stable family as opposed to abuse. Or your teachers might not care at all to encourage you.<p>This is not about telling people not to try. This is about recognizing that even trying is not &quot;equally easy&quot;, and that outlier success stories doesn&#x27;t mean the game is not rigged against those from poor backgrounds. And perhaps finding ways to fix this issues (e.g. reducing poverty, abuse, stress factors for poor people, better educational districts, and so on).<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rnz.co.nz&#x2F;news&#x2F;the-wireless&#x2F;373065&#x2F;the-pencilsword-on-a-plate" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rnz.co.nz&#x2F;news&#x2F;the-wireless&#x2F;373065&#x2F;the-pencilswo...</a>