Scarcity Trap

By Chen Haixian

On Zhihu,a Chinese question-and-answer website,I was deeply inspired by a post on the correlation between poverty and judgment.The top-ranked answer was a personal recount by an online user.

The user grew up in a poor family.His parents passed away one after another when he was a teenager,leaving him behind with two brothers:one older and one younger.When he went to college,he could barely afford the tuition without the help of his relatives and his elder brother who had just started working,and he also worked part-time as a home tutor and freelance writer to cover his living expenses.He led a poor life through college.Poverty made him give up his dream of becoming a film director.He began to work right after graduation to make money.And in order to earn more money,he became rather shortsighted,hopping from one job to another frequently.

“At that time,as long as I was offered a better paying job,even if it was only 500 or 1,000 yuan higher,I’d accept it without any hesitation,” he said.“It is not that I couldn’t endure being poor,but the point is,having an extra 100 yuan each month was much better than not having it.”

Because of frequent job hopping,he lost quite a few opportunities to shake offpoverty once and for all.Some opportunities were available to him only if he could curb the eagerness for quick profits and wait patiently.Several companies he once worked for were either listed in the stock market or merged into a bigger company.If he had stayed in any one of them,he might have ended up being a millionaire or even a billionaire for the share options he could have been allocated; he simply couldn’t wait for it.After years of fruitless efforts,he drew a conclusion,“My past 40 years were like fighting in a war without enough provisions.Unable to join in a regular army,I couldn’t help but become a roving bandit who muddled along without any expectation for the future.”

“知乎”網(wǎng)上有一個關(guān)于貧窮與判斷力的帖子，很讓我受益。排名第一的回答是某位網(wǎng)友的自述。

這位網(wǎng)友小時候家里很窮。少年時代，父母相繼過世。家里還有一個哥哥和一個弟弟。上大學時，他的學費要靠親戚和剛上班的哥哥接濟，生活費則要靠自己做家教、寫文章掙，生活非常困頓。因為貧窮，他放棄了當導演的夢想，早早開始工作，努力掙錢。為了能掙更多的錢，他變得短視，不停地在各個互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司之間跳來跳去。

他說：“那時候，只要別人給的薪水比當下的高，不管是高500元還是1000 元，我都會毫不遲疑地跳槽。”“我面對的問題，往往不是耐不耐得住貧窮的問題，而是多100 元總比少100 元要好得多得多的問題。”

因為頻繁跳槽，他失去好幾次真正擺脫貧窮的機會，這些機會只需要他放棄掙扎，安心等待就可以得到。他待過的好幾家公司，要么上市，要么被收購，如果繼續(xù)待著，他很可能因為期權(quán)，最終會身家千萬甚至上億，但他等不了。蹉跎多年以后，他總結(jié)說：“如果把我走過的這40年比作一場戰(zhàn)爭，那我就是一支一直糧草不足的軍隊。做不了正規(guī)軍，只能做胸無大志、不想明天的流寇。”

從文章描述看，這位網(wǎng)友無疑非常努力上進，在他的圈子里也很厲害。可就是這樣的人，也沒能擺脫貧窮的影響，這真讓人唏噓。

貧窮的匱乏，大部分以“缺愛”始，以“不安”終。因為孩子最初并不會知道喝米湯還是喝進口奶粉、在農(nóng)村還是在繁華都市、住集體宿舍還是住豪華別墅的區(qū)別。他們對世界的觀感僅限于當他們渴了、餓了，有沒有人來滿足他們，當他們需要時，母親能否提供溫暖的懷抱，這是安全感最初的來源。可糟糕的是，貧窮也會影響母親。處于匱乏中的母親會更焦慮，對孩子更不上心。她們無法給孩子提供安全依戀，反而很容易把她們自身的焦慮傳遞給孩子。

From the story,it was easy to assume that the user was a hard worker and was also considered a big fish among his coworkers.The sad thing was that someone like him couldn’t shake off the poverty.

Poverty-related scarcity usually starts from a lack of love and ends in a lack of security.For example,children,in the first place,don’t care whether they are drinking rice soup or imported baby formula,dwelling in a rural area or bustling city,or living in a crowded dormitory or a luxurious villa.Their perception towards the world is limited to whether someone will cater to their thirst or hunger,or whether their mother will give them a warm hug when they need it,which is the mere source of security.What’s worse,poverty also affects mothers.Mothers facing scarcity in life tend to be more anxious,and less attentive to looking after their children.Instead of providing a secure attachment,they may easily pass their own anxieties to their children.

If our human brain was a fire alarm,early scarcity would make the alarm highly sensitive.Present,future,and perceived scarcity also trigger the alarm,resulting in bewilderment in the brain.When our brain musters up all of its forces to put out the blaze,it turns out that it is merely a small flaming trash can.Over time,the fire brigade in the brain will become tired,and it becomes hard for us to keep calm and focus on our work,let alone plan for the future.

Scarcity captures our attention.If a well-fed person occasionally skips a meal,he can feel at ease to take it as dieting,but someone who constantly suffers from hunger will be scared of starvation.Fear can divert attention to looking for food.Likewise,a poor man may think of nothing but feeding himself.

According to behavioral economist Sendhil Mullainathan and psychologist Eldar Shafir,the attention of our brain will be captured by essential resources due to persistent resource scarcity,and when our attention is overloaded by these resources,we’ll lose our cognitive resources,which they call “bandwidth.”Bandwidth is needed for any rational decision-making.The Scarcity of bandwidth will make us focus too much on immediate interests rather than long-term benefits.A poor man has to pinch pennies to support himself,and there’s no bandwidth for him to consider investing for the future.Similarly,someone who is fully occupied at work has to deal with the most urgent tasks before the deadline,and there’s no time for the things that really matter.

Scarcity is not only an objective condition,but a psychological pattern.Even if some people are lucky enough to physically escape scarcity for the time being,they may still be mentally haunted by it for a long time.As a psychological pattern,it may easily trap people back into physical scarcity again.

(FromHappiness:Book of Answers for an Imperfect Life,Jiangxi People’s Publishing House.Translation:Zhu Yaguang)

如果把人的大腦比作一個火警報警器，早期的匱乏會讓這個報警器更加敏感。而當下的、將來的或想象中的匱乏又會變成觸發(fā)警報的信號，讓大腦處于一片慌亂之中。大腦興師動眾地組織救火時，卻常常發(fā)現(xiàn)自己只是在應(yīng)付一只冒火的垃圾桶。久而久之，大腦里的這支消防隊就會極度疲憊，人也很難沉下心來做事，謀劃未來。

匱乏會俘獲我們的注意力。一個常年吃飽飯的人，偶爾餓一頓，可以心安理得地把它當作減肥。而一個常年挨餓的人，會因為挨餓而恐懼。這種恐懼會讓他把所有的注意力都集中到搜索食物上。同樣，一個窮人也會只想著掙錢，不顧其他。

行為經(jīng)濟學家穆來納森和沙菲指出，長期的資源匱乏會導致大腦的注意力被稀缺資源俘獲。當注意力被太多的稀缺資源占據(jù)后，人會失去理智決策所需要的認知資源，他們把這種認知資源叫“帶寬”。“帶寬”的缺乏會導致人們過度關(guān)注當前利益而無法考慮長遠利益。一個窮人為了滿足當前的生活，不得不精打細算，沒有任何“帶寬”來考慮投資和發(fā)展事宜。而一個過度忙碌的人，為了趕截止日期，也不得不被那些最緊急的任務(wù)拖累，沒有時間去做真正重要的事情。

所以，匱乏并不只是一種客觀狀態(tài)，也是一種心理模式。即便人們幸運地暫時擺脫了匱乏的狀態(tài)，也會被這種匱乏的心理模式糾纏很久，這種心理模式很容易讓人們重新陷入?yún)T乏。

（摘自《幸福課：不完美人生的解答書》江西人民出版社）