While traditional conservative ideology argues that anyone can lift themselves out of poverty by dint of his own efforts, the Swedish study is dramatic confirmation that the limitations imposed by growing up poor cause lifelong wounds that only greater equality can heal.
In a major new study, Swedish researchers have found a direct link between childhood poverty and subsequent development of mental illness, and the longer a child is poor, the greater her chances of affliction.
And while traditional conservative ideology argues that anyone can lift themselves out of poverty by dint of his own efforts, the Swedish study is dramatic confirmation that the limitations imposed by growing up poor cause lifelong wounds that only greater equality can heal.,
From the University of Helsinki:
The results gained in a study involving approximately one million Danish children increase the understanding of…
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The Most Revolutionary Act 
Not surprised. It’s control. It’s the system.
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I wish this article had mentioned something about the close link between childhood poverty and physical illness, as well, Trace. Over the last two decades, I have been fascinated by the new field of epigenetics and findings that stress during pregnancy and the first two years of life permanently alters gene expression in children.
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I have read about epigenetics, too. Permanently alters, indeed.
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I suspect that the “learned helplessness” aspect of being poor in a poor community, along with the lack of good role models (plus the plethora of bad ones) is more predictive of future mental, physical, and financial problems than poverty itself.
Lately I ve been reading about Native Americans before the Europeans arrived, and how different the cultures were. Money was not a issue, for one thing, and tribes took care of their own. There was an appreciation for nature and what it had to offer. The land was respected, with nothing wasted and all life given its due.
The Europeans brought their guns and diseases and conquered the Americans with their attitudes and self-righteous superiority, and they have turned this formerly pristine land into a garbage dump. Perhaps the connection between poverty and mental illness denotes a kind of spiritual poverty that has little to do with money.
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All good points, Katherine. Are you acquainted with the work of Dr Stephen Bezruchka and Dr Susan Rosenthal? They both have spend decades studying the physiological link between poverty, epigenetics and poor long term physical and emotional health:
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