My theory on why poor people are such notoriously lax parents

Former sociology prof wrote:

That's really pretty racist and shows little knowledge of history. In the 1400s there were African civilizations that had built cities and there were a lot of Europeans living in mud huts.

Racism is believing your race is superior to others. I believe in no such thing. I just face the music. Unlike some who want to live in fantasy land. I'm guessing you found this book offensive too:

Fact: average IQ in Europeans 100

Fact: average IQ in Africans 70

Countries by IQ:

Top ten:

1 Singapore 108

2 Hong Kong 108

3 Taiwan 106

4 South Korea 106

5 Japan 105

6 China 104

7 Switzerland 102

8 Netherlands 102

9 North Korea 102

10 Macao 101

Bottom 10:

102 Congo (Dem. Republic) 63

103 Eritrea 63

104 Guinea-Bissau 62

105 Ethiopia 61

106 Senegal 60

107 Gambia 60

108 Timor-Leste 60

109 Gabon 60

110 Sao Tome and Principe 58

111 Equatorial Guinea 56

But don't state the obvious, because that is somehow racist.

Former sociology prof wrote:

That's really pretty racist and shows little knowledge of history. In the 1400s there were African civilizations that had built cities and there were a lot of Europeans living in mud huts.

And yet Sub-Saharan Africa could never, ever invent the wheel, or woven cloth, or written language, or even advanced verbal language.

Want to know why they still don't use dictionaries in Sub-Saharan Africa? Because their language is so simple that even the least intelligent person can remember every single word in the language.

In 1,000 years they will still be engaged in wide-scale cannibalism and slavery of each other, and the evil white man will still be blamed for it.

Some of these topics are so obvious yet there is disagreement because the facts are not politically correct. Good ACT score equals good salary. Good ACT score equals smart. Bad ACT score equals dumb and equals low salary. Asian equals very good ACT. White equals good ACT. Hispanic equals below average ACT. Black equals bad ACT.

dfasdfasdfasdfasdfasdfsdf wrote:

Former sociology prof wrote:

That's really pretty racist and shows little knowledge of history. In the 1400s there were African civilizations that had built cities and there were a lot of Europeans living in mud huts.

And yet Sub-Saharan Africa could never, ever invent the wheel, or woven cloth, or written language, or even advanced verbal language.

Want to know why they still don't use dictionaries in Sub-Saharan Africa? Because their language is so simple that even the least intelligent person can remember every single word in the language.

In 1,000 years they will still be engaged in wide-scale cannibalism and slavery of each other, and the evil white man will still be blamed for it.

In all sincerity, this guy gets it.

Rich parents rock. Poor parents suck.

You’re an idiot. IQ tests are a social construct and are not an accurate measure of relative intelligence relative to ones environment.

You need to be purged Darwin style.

madarin wrote:

dfasdfasdfasdfasdfasdfsdf wrote:

And yet Sub-Saharan Africa could never, ever invent the wheel, or woven cloth, or written language, or even advanced verbal language.

Want to know why they still don't use dictionaries in Sub-Saharan Africa? Because their language is so simple that even the least intelligent person can remember every single word in the language.

In 1,000 years they will still be engaged in wide-scale cannibalism and slavery of each other, and the evil white man will still be blamed for it.

In all sincerity, this guy gets it.

You’re also an idiot. A few hundred years ago your ancestors burned people at the stake. You need to be cannibalised.

Rich people should be immortalized. Poor people should be sterilized.

You pick the metric. ACT, SAT, IQ, salary, crime? You don’t like any of them but they all say the same thing.

Wow! There is so much stupid in this thread. It's fascinating to see how a bunch of white, privileged guys view the world. It's kind of sad, actually.

Yes, white collar crime isn't really a crime, just a re-appropriation of funds.

madarin wrote:

dfasdfasdfasdfasdfasdfsdf wrote:

And yet Sub-Saharan Africa could never, ever invent the wheel, or woven cloth, or written language, or even advanced verbal language.

Want to know why they still don't use dictionaries in Sub-Saharan Africa? Because their language is so simple that even the least intelligent person can remember every single word in the language.

In 1,000 years they will still be engaged in wide-scale cannibalism and slavery of each other, and the evil white man will still be blamed for it.

In all sincerity, this guy gets it.

The Chinese are going to make most of Africa into a slave state, and they do not have that Western white guilt. They are going to brutalize the people of Africa, and have no compunction about doing so.

I don't disagree with you.

What a lot of the "you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it" people forget is that luck plays an element in everything, esp. getting into school and getting good jobs.

Also how popular you are in school and how connected you are has better success later in life.

I don't even think that you are close to accurate here. Poor people come in all types, so there is not one justifiable characterization of their parenting. Often it is the case that the majority of children are being raised by single mothers. They are often working. So, they don't have a lot of time or energy to be and be active with their children. Poor families are more inclined to be strict in the sense of using physical violence on a regular basis against their children. They are less educated and tend to have no books in the household. They have access only to public afterschool and summer camps, which usually do not provide the same level of academic opportunities as middle and upper class children get (some of these public programs are very high quality, in my experience, but many lack the teacher-student ratio to teach effectively). Studies have shown that black fathers living with their children spend more time with their children than white or hispanic fathers in the same situation.

The american middleclass' obsession with poor people ("why poor people") should result in actual political will to raise taxes and provide good healthcare, a free educationsystem and a solid raise in minimumwages.

Until then you will just continue to spam us with "why poor people", which you do because you think, wow I am so fantastic and thanks to my parents I got out of jail there, but wow, look at those poor idiots.

As a poor person with kids here’s my take...

I wasn’t raised poor, but having an autistic child has been so draining that we have been unable to maintain the financial or psychological resources to provide for them in the manner my parents did for me.

The constantly shifting demands we face have made it impossible to hold down a regular job and have had to leave my career.

Every day is full of new surprises, and neither of us anticipated that we would need to have a completely different understanding of how to raise children than we did when we chose to have them.

While I’m probably not particularly bright, I’m willing to work hard and don’t really feel that my lack of intelligence is a big factor here. Rather, my child is incapable of understanding the rules by which ordinary children behave and often we find ourselves with the choice of appearing more permissive rather than going down a disciplinary path which would be completely ineffective and possibly abusive.

You have to pick your battles, and it’s not something which is obvious to outsiders. It makes me ashamed to take my child out in public.

This is what you will find when you look at poor families.

Being poor is not a choice, nor is it a moral failing. You can’t just “choose” to not be poor anymore.

I don’t want to buy my kids iPhones. I just want them to be able to use the bathroom by themselves, to speak in proper sentences or not swear at strangers.

The list of countries with a supposedly low national iq correlates very well with national income. Are the people of East Timor low iq by nature and the people of nearby countries such as Thailand and Malaysia high iq? Indonesia has a national iq of 84 on this site and East Timor 60. East Timor used to be part of Indonesia. It is also the site of a genocide and desperate poverty. Those figures are older but Indonesia's national income is almost twice East Timor's, at $3540 and $1790, respectively. Seriously, IQ is a function primarily of national income and education rates. Lest you then respond that those are functions of IQ, just look at development history in East Asia. In 1960, China was poorer than Africa. Today, China is much richer. India was also poorer in 1960. It has grown far more since. Other Asian tigers illustrate the point. As their economies have developed through justifiable national development strategies, their education levels and IQs have grown as well. Between 1985-86 and 2011-12, measures of Chinese IQ among 12 year olds climbed over 6 points on the full-scale Wechsler and performance IQ measures, at the same time as the Chinese economy grew rapidly.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3834612/

These IQ improvements were also seen in East Asia as their economies improved markedly:

"The Flynn effect has not been widely studied in Asian countries. In Japan, Lynn and Hampson (1986) reported an average gain of 7.7 IQ points per decade for samples born from 1940 to 1965. In South Korea, IQ gains of 7.7 points per decade were observed for individuals born between 1970–1990 have been reported by te Nijenhuis, Cho, Murphy, & Lee (2012). In Taiwan, an IQ gain of 2.45 IQ points per decade in children measured by the WISC-III and the WISC-IV was recorded over the years 1997–2007."

amateur sociologist wrote:

Just a theory.

I don't really think it's a sound theory.

I have two kids. I don't buy them things because I want other kids to be jealous of them. I buy them things because (1) it's a holiday (birthday, Christmas, etc), (2) because they need certain things (clothes, shoes, etc.), or (3) because I want them to succeed in life (books, puzzles, sporting gear, etc.). And I buy the things that they like. Never in my purchasing decision has "what other kids will think about it" ever entered my mind.

And if my wife and I were poor, I think we'd be more lax in our parenting simply because we'd be stressed about finances and/or working multiple jobs.

It's a little easier to worry about your daughter's ballet class or your son's shooting form on his foul shot when your bills are paid. A little harder when you're worried about being evicted or working two full-time jobs to make ends meet.