Post date: Jan 8, 2012 2:06:12 AM
A few months back I read this article, "More Than 1 Billion People Are Hungry in the World.- But what if the experts are wrong?" by renowned economist Abhijit Banerjee of MIT. A very insightful article about poverty, at places It talks about the poverty trap. Wikipedia defines poverty trap as - "any self-reinforcing mechanism which causes poverty to persist." but in most of the cases people don't know they are in poverty trap. For example, they don't invest in nutritious food but in other items as they get a little extra income.
We all get ourselves in such traps. We don't do what we should in the first place ! for example - after an argument, we stop talking to someone. Well... that's precisely like a poverty trap. If we don't discuss, we will never be able to come to a conclusion and resolve issues.
Another example is I drink coffee in the morning almost daily because I feel sleepy. In the evenings, after coming back from the office, I feel tired and drink another coffee... which sometimes makes three coffee a day... and then I don't feel sleepy in night! It becomes terrible if I take a quick nap after coming back from the office. This is a trap... cause and effect... I don't feel sleepy in the night -> increase caffeine intake next day -> which again causes another sleepless night. Some people add alcohol in this cycle to make it worst :)
We all have so many traps around us - which we don't even realize. Try to find and break it!