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What prevents the poor from reaching the middle class? | VISION TALKS

American Enterprise Institute · 36.9K views · 2014-07-10 · 18:10

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Overview

Megan McArdle's AEI Vision Talk 'Capital and Poverty' argues that social and financial capital work differently in low-income communities, and that this explains barriers to reaching the middle class.

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Cited to explain why poor people's seemingly irrational financial decisions can rationally protect their social safety net.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2014–2024

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e63f67dd-065b · 2024-02 · Recommendation

> This reflects a false belief that people who live in poor neighborhoods are less compassionate. In fact research suggests that people living in poverty tend to be more compassionate towards each other than rich people are toward the impoverished. It's comforting for wealthier people to hold this belief, because it makes us feel less bad about our own lack of compassion. From what I recall, its less that the poor are more compassionate, instead they participate in _reciprocal altruism_ as a form of insurance against further loss. I remember this talk [VIDEO] -- poor people make seemingly dumb decisions because if they don't help their social network when it comes knocking, they're in effect _cutting themselves off_ from said network. The middle class is more insulated from this effect because those with emergency savings don't often need to borrow $500 because of a broken car or need to house their recently homeless sister and children, so capital can accumulate more easily.

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humanrebar · 2014-12 · Recommendation

A different theory is that some people value social capital above other forms of capital and that can be a rational thing to do: [VIDEO]

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gruez · 2022-02 · Reference

> There's something I remember being told (or maybe read about too) I heard it from a youtube video [VIDEO]

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Video by American Enterprise Institute, played through YouTube.

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