How being poor leads to poor decisions?

Being poor can make it harder to choose good things because you have fewer options and more needs to worry about.

Imagine you're choosing between a snack that's cheap but not very full, or a snack that's more expensive but fills you up for longer. If you only have a little money, the cheaper snack might seem like the best choice, even if it means being hungry again soon. That’s kind of what happens when people are poor: they often pick choices that help them right now, even if they're not as good in the long run.

When you’re poor, life feels more urgent. Maybe you need money for food today, so you take a job that pays quickly but doesn’t give you time to rest or learn new skills. It’s like choosing between playing with your toys now and saving up for a bigger toy later, sometimes the bigger toy seems too far away.

If something goes wrong, like you lose your job, being poor means there's less space to recover. It’s like having only one sock in your drawer: if that sock gets lost, you're left with nothing. But if you have a few socks, losing one doesn't feel as bad.

So being poor can make it harder to choose wisely, not because people are bad at making choices, but because they’re trying their best with what they have.