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”网上有一个关于贫穷与判断力的帖子，很让我受益。排名第一的回答是某位网友的自述。

这位网友小时候家里很穷。少年时代，父母相继过世。家里还有一个哥哥和一个弟弟。上大学时，他的学费要靠亲戚和刚上班的哥哥接济，生活费则要靠自己做家教、写文章挣，生活非常困顿。因为贫穷，他放弃了当导演的梦想，早早开始工作，努力挣钱。为了能挣更多的钱，他变得短视，不停地在各个互联网公司之间跳来跳去。

他说：“那时候，只要别人给的薪水比当下的高，不管是高500元还是1000 元，我都会毫不迟疑地跳槽。”“我面对的问题，往往不是耐不耐得住贫穷的问题，而是多100 元总比少100 元要好得多得多的问题。”

因为频繁跳槽，他失去好几次真正摆脱贫穷的机会，这些机会只需要他放弃挣扎，安心等待就可以得到。他待过的好几家公司，要么上市，要么被收购，如果继续待着，他很可能因为期权，最终会身家千万甚至上亿，但他等不了。蹉跎多年以后，他总结说：“如果把我走过的这40年比作一场战争，那我就是一支一直粮草不足的军队。做不了正规军，只能做胸无大志、不想明天的流寇。”

从文章描述看，这位网友无疑非常努力上进，在他的圈子里也很厉害。可就是这样的人，也没能摆脱贫穷的影响，这真让人唏嘘。

贫穷的匮乏，大部分以“缺爱”始，以“不安”终。因为孩子最初并不会知道喝米汤还是喝进口奶粉、在农村还是在繁华都市、住集体宿舍还是住豪华别墅的区别。他们对世界的观感仅限于当他们渴了、饿了，有没有人来满足他们，当他们需要时，母亲能否提供温暖的怀抱，这是安全感最初的来源。可糟糕的是，贫穷也会影响母亲。处于匮乏中的母亲会更焦虑，对孩子更不上心。她们无法给孩子提供安全依恋，反而很容易把她们自身的焦虑传递给孩子。

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)

如果把人的大脑比作一个火警报警器，早期的匮乏会让这个报警器更加敏感。而当下的、将来的或想象中的匮乏又会变成触发警报的信号，让大脑处于一片慌乱之中。大脑兴师动众地组织救火时，却常常发现自己只是在应付一只冒火的垃圾桶。久而久之，大脑里的这支消防队就会极度疲惫，人也很难沉下心来做事，谋划未来。

匮乏会俘获我们的注意力。一个常年吃饱饭的人，偶尔饿一顿，可以心安理得地把它当作减肥。而一个常年挨饿的人，会因为挨饿而恐惧。这种恐惧会让他把所有的注意力都集中到搜索食物上。同样，一个穷人也会只想着挣钱，不顾其他。

行为经济学家穆来纳森和沙菲指出，长期的资源匮乏会导致大脑的注意力被稀缺资源俘获。当注意力被太多的稀缺资源占据后，人会失去理智决策所需要的认知资源，他们把这种认知资源叫“带宽”。“带宽”的缺乏会导致人们过度关注当前利益而无法考虑长远利益。一个穷人为了满足当前的生活，不得不精打细算，没有任何“带宽”来考虑投资和发展事宜。而一个过度忙碌的人，为了赶截止日期，也不得不被那些最紧急的任务拖累，没有时间去做真正重要的事情。

所以，匮乏并不只是一种客观状态，也是一种心理模式。即便人们幸运地暂时摆脱了匮乏的状态，也会被这种匮乏的心理模式纠缠很久，这种心理模式很容易让人们重新陷入匮乏。

（摘自《幸福课：不完美人生的解答书》江西人民出版社）