Poverty

House passes $15 minimum wage bill CNN By Katie Lobosco, Ashley Killough, Clare Foran and Haley Byrd July 18, 2019 “The House passed a bill Thursday that would raise the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade — but there’s little chance the measure will be taken up in the Republican-controlled Senate. The House vote was 231-199. Three Republicans — Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Francis Rooney of Florida and Chris Smith of New Jersey — joined most Democrats in supporting the measure. Six Democrats — including Anthony Brindisi of New York, Joe Cunningham of South Carolina, Kendra Horn of Oklahoma, Ben McAdams of Utah, Kurt Schrader of Oregon and Xochitl Torres Small of New Mexico — opposed it. The bill was a priority for progressives and gives a victory to a movement that’s taken nearly seven years to get this far.”

How Poverty Changes The Brain The Atlantic April 19, 2017 Tara Garcia Mathewson
Economic Mobility Pathways, or EMPath, (Elisabeth Babcock, president and CEO) used its 2014 report, “Using Brain Science to Design New Pathways Out of Poverty”  in the Intergenerational Mobility Project “Intergen” (Stephanie Brueck, senior coordinator), which partners with Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child.  It uses functional imagery of  “bridges to self-sufficiency” and a “brighter future” with a “family carpool lane tool” to align goals. Increased executive functioning has been demonstrated in 86% of children and their families report less “chaos” and more togetherness in externally validated studies.  
Stress causes the emotional limbic system and restricts the ability to think clearly about anything other than the immediate threat, therefore poor people are cognitively disadvantaged from the start.  Learning and setting long-term goals become much more difficult in a world dictated by short-term survival and uncertainty.  Additional social biases against the poor, racial, religious, sexual, or other minorities within a community add to the stressors.  More recent research shows that trauma doesn’t make one stronger, but rather biases one to expect the worst and have difficulty relaxing into a confident, safe emotional space.
Poverty increases stress that contribute to broken homes and more poverty.  Stress also weakens the immune system, releases cortisol (attributed to belly fat in common advertising), and redirects blood flow away from organs, thereby weakening the body over time and contributing to numerous diseases. Disease costs money for treatment and lessens the ability to earn money, hurting the ability to rise out of poverty in a systematic kind of way. Having less personal space in cramped quarters increases stress, and in these circumstances there may be substance abuse, anger management issues, domestic abuse, and other stressors either within the home or ear shot.