tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3412583847145043520.post8237930208785784621..comments2024-03-27T19:01:21.504-06:00Comments on Enik Rising: The culture of povertySeth Maskethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17178036016555722068noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3412583847145043520.post-48788805352421878962010-10-21T15:56:43.808-06:002010-10-21T15:56:43.808-06:00The argument that a "culture of poverty"...The argument that a "culture of poverty" is adaptive is one that makes sense as a heuristic explanation, but I'm not sure that it is well supported empirically. <br /><br />For example, marriage rates are much lower for the poor and divorce rates are much higher for the poor, but those who do stay married reap great socio-economic dividends.<br /><br />The rewards of violence and dropping out of school are extremely short term. Even for those who aren't good in school and will stay in the neighborhood, those who reject both have far better success in their own milieu.<br /><br />I think that the hypothesis that inability to confirm behavior to middle class values, rather a lack of desire to do so due to adherence to different culturae of poverty norms due to the adapative value of this alternative set of values (or in the alternative, the motion that values are a cultural legacy almost as hard to break as a genetic one and that they are vestigal while not being adapative now), may be better supported by the evidence.<br /><br />For example, the academic outcome improvements for the poor when tranplanted to middle class environments in youth when learned culture has room to be unlearned and becomes non-adaptive, are surprisingly modest. Kids who ultimately drop out of school have already fallen far behind academically at intermediate elementary grades. Kids who will go on to show a lifetime of violent behavior are starting to separate out from their peers behaviorally in late pre-school/kindergarten and aren't making the kind of rational calculus about the benefits of violent behavior suggested in the article at that age. Poor credit performance has much more to do with irregularity of income than lack of willingness to pay. Marriage works less well when the husband is a high school dropout who is in and out of prison who can't hold onto a good job.Andrew Oh-Willekehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02537151821869153861noreply@blogger.com