Literature Review #1

Citation:
Thompson, Derek. "Your Brain on Poverty: Why Poor People Seem to Make Bad Decisions." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 22 Nov. 2013. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.

Summary:
The article takes a stab at explaining just why people spend money on their short term futures rather than their long-term futures. People in poverty spend money on the short term for a one specific reason, the article claims, and that's giving up on the long-term future. For poorer people, there may not be a long-term purchase in their future, so why not spend the money on something they can enjoy in the short term? In a sense, spending money on short term necessities is more rational than spending money on something too far in the future to even consider.

Author:
Derek Thompson - Senior editor at the Atlantic, covering economics, labor markets, and the entertainment business.

Quotes:
"The inescapability of poverty weighs so heavily on the [impoverished person] that s/he abandons long-term planning entirely, because the short term needs are so great and the long-term gains so implausible."

"'In this situation, giving up can be a natural – indeed, a rational – response to a time frame that wasn't properly framed to begin with,'" (Maria Konnikova, NY Times).

Relation to my topic:
It's interesting how college students perceive their futures beyond school. If a student does not have long-term goals, they are more likely to spend money on unessentials. For many students struggling with heavy debt, the long-term future of their financial well-being is so far in the future that the cost of spending money on something short term feels as if it has no impact on them whatsoever. Nothing a college student can do now will significantly decrease their college debt, so why not spend money on something they can enjoy now? As evidenced in the article, any person struggling with poverty is likely to fall into this trap.