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Dylan Stucker

20170131

Meyer 12b

The Sad Thing About Money

Over a lifetime, 6 in 10 Americans will experience at least one year of relative poverty,

says Jackie Zimmermann, an author for Time Magazine. What goes on in the brain during that

year? Does that person in poverty care that they are living the way that they are? Do they become

depressed? What happens in the home and with the family? The social issue that I would prefer

to discuss and give thoughts on would be the topic of how the increasing cost of living in

America affect one's emotional health. While I was trying to figure out what issue I would

research, I also looked into topics such as the wealth gap, inflation, the idea of "safe spaces", and

the rising divorce rate in America. I chose this topic because the problem of the amount of

money distributed has always been an issue since the idea of currency was first created, though it

hasn't been thoroughly evaluated by a single source. The increasing cost of living in America

affects one's emotional health because it causes stress, creates problems in the family, and can

potentially lead to depression.

To be able to talk about the negatives and positives about the cost of living, we first need

to review what exactly the cost of living is and how it is calculated. The cost of living is the

dollar amount of basic necessities such as food, a home, transportation, and clothing. The cost of

living differs all over the world, with some cities such as Salt Lake City having a higher cost of

living than, for example, Terre Haute, Indiana. From my personal experience when moving from

Terre Haute to Salt Lake, I noticed big differences in the prices of homes. 150,000 dollars in

Terre Haute could get you a very nice two story, 5 bedroom house with acres of land to spare. In
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Salt Lake City, the same house but with a 50 foot yard would be somewhere around 500,000

dollar mark. Other factors about the area also come into the equation as well, such as the

landscape around the home and the people that are living around the homeowners. Now to the

math part of calculating the cost of living: the cost of living is calculated with a base number of

100. With the example of Terre Haute and Salt Lake City, if Salt Lake City is 20% more

expensive to live in than Terre Haute, then the cost of living index in Salt Lake City will be 120,

respectively. On the flip side, if Salt Lake City is the city that you are living in and one would

want to move to Terre Haute, then the base of Salt Lake City changes to 100 instead, and then

Terre Haute would be at a cost of living index of 80. Keep in mind there are other places that are

way more expensive and also way cheaper to live in than both of the cities listed, so results may

vary.

Now we need to talk about how the cost of living rises. There are numerous key factors

that affect the cost of living in a given area, the largest being inflation. Inflation is the general

increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money. When the value of the American

dollar decreases and the price of store-bought goods increases, a problem arises. Common ways

to try and remedy inflation are to raise minimum wages and print more money, though the long-

term result of that is that the dollar would be worth even less than before.One of those ways to

effectively lower the rate of inflation is to increase the cost of borrowing money by having

higher interest rates on loans. Another way would be to decrease government spending which

allows for less growth and therefore less inflation.

Research has shown that children living in low-income families or neighbourhoods in

Canada have worse health outcomes, on average, than other children, as determined by a number

of key indicators, according to Rita Paul-Sen Gupta, MSc. Gupta continues by saying that babies
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born with a low birth weight are at increased risk of dying in the first year of life. As a group,

they have higher rates of rehospitalization, below-normal growth, childhood illnesses,

neurological problems, developmental problems and health-related limitations. In 1996, the low

birth weight rate was 40% higher in Canadas lowest income urban neighbourhoods than in the

highest income urban neighbourhoods. This means that children in low-income families have

less of a chance of surviving due to the mother of the child not having enough to eat for herself

and the child, ultimately giving the child an unfair disadvantage from the get-go.

While we are talking about the families in poverties, according to the Wilkinson and

Finkbeiner law firm, a divorce takes place every 13 seconds in the US. That is equal to 277

divorces per hour, 6,646 divorces per day, 46,523 per week, and 2,419,196 per year. Also

according to Wilkinson and Finkbeiner, almost 50 percent of parents with children that are going

through a divorce move into poverty after the divorce. According to Kelley Holland, 35 percent

of all respondents experiencing relationship stress said money was the primary cause of friction.

(Annoying habits came in second, at 25 percent.) Among respondents with relationship stress

aged 44 to 54, 44 percent said money was the primary cause. The Statistics Canada study found

that men who had divorced or separated were six times more likely to report an episode of

depression compared with men who remained married. Divorce rates are also more concentrated

in certain areas. Nevada currently holds the highest divorce rate in America at 14.6%. Nevada in

particular is known for gambling and many things that involve money, and is also one of the

more expensive places to live in the United States. If the bulk of the divorces in the United states

occur in the more expensive cities and states to live in, then that proves the statement that a

raised cost of living affects emotional health in a negative way.

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Financial difficulties are to blame for a rise in suicide among 40- to 64-year-olds over the

past 15 years, according to new research published in the American Journal of Preventive

Medicine. Nick Tate, an author for Newsmax Health, states that suicide rates have risen about 40

percent since 1999 among Americans in midlife and older, with a sharp rise since 2007. Some of

the key factors of the rise in suicide rates were believed to be the Great Recession, major

unemployment spikes, and loss of retirement benefits among the latter of the age scale. The

gain/loss of money both play astonishing effects on emotional well being. The more debt one has

will bring along negative emotional health. However, that changes when its a mortgage. Amy

Morin, an author for Psychology Today states that a homeowner has better emotional stability

than those who rent. Given that, some aspects of debt can actually have positive effects on ones

mental health and promote stability and independence amongst those who have a mortgage. So

as I am rambling on and on about how debt and the rising cost of living is making people

depressed, there are also some aspects of having debt that make people feel safe, secure, and

independent from those who raised them.

According to Lewis Warne, author for The National Center for Policy Analysis, the

eligibility for government social benefits is based for the most part on a loosely defined measure

of poverty at the federal poverty level, which is an income range that changes by family size. The

level is supposed to be the minimum income required for a household to buy the things stated in

earlier paragraphs that influence the cost of living in a given area. In 2013, the poverty range

varied from 11,490 dollars for a one-person household to 23,550 dollars for a family of four.

When the cost of living increases, the poverty ranges do as well, which means that families that

were once just on the border of the poverty line would now be a considerate amount below the

same line, which in this case, would have a negative effect on that given persons emotional
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health. According to Emily Badger, an author for CityLab,The condition of poverty imposed a

mental burden akin to losing 13 IQ points. Badger continues to state that low-income people

who were made to think about financial issues performed unsatisfactory on a series of mental

tests, burdened with a mental load that was equivalent to losing an entire nights sleep.

The increasing cost of living in America affects one's emotional health because it causes

stress, creates problems in the family, and can potentially lead to depression. However, different

types of debt can have different emotional effects on the person who is in debt, such as a

mortgage. There are grueling consequences to an increased cost of living and increased debts,

such as increased suicide rates and divorce rates, but there are ways to remedy the situation if we

manage the money of our respective country more wisely and dont borrow as much as we would

have before. The cost of living affects more than just low income families because it can bring

those who were above the poverty line closer to the line they are trying to steer clear of. If

federal government spending decreases and gives more spending power to the states and certain

government entitlement funds were funded back to the people, then those who could stand on

their own two feet could do so and live comfortably, debt and hopefully stress free.
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Works Cited

Badger, Emily. "How Poverty Taxes the Brain." CityLab. The Atlantic Monthly Group,

05 Sept. 2013. Web. 01 Feb. 2017.

"Divorce Facts and Statistics | What Affects Divorce Rates?" Wilkinson & Finkbeiner,

LLP. Wilkinson & Finkbeiner, n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2017.

Gupta, Rita Paul-Sen, Margaret L De Wit, and David McKeown. "The Impact of Poverty

on the Current and Future Health Status of Children." Paediatrics & Child Health. Pulsus Group

Inc, 29 Aug. 2007. Web. 01 Feb. 2017.

Holland, Kelley. "We Know Why You and Your Spouse Will Fight Tonight." CNBC.

CNBC, 04 Feb. 2015. Web. 01 Feb. 2017.

Morin, Amy. "What Mentally Strong People Don't Do." Psychology Today. Sussex

Publishers, July-Aug. 2015. Web. 01 Feb. 2017.

Nauert, Rick. "After Divorce, Men Twice as Likely to Experience Depression." Psych

Central News. Psych Central, 06 Oct. 2015. Web. 01 Feb. 2017.

Pettinger, Tejvan. "Policies to Reduce Inflation." Economics Help. EconomicsHelp, Oct.-

Nov. 2015. Web. 01 Feb. 2017.

Tate, Nick. "Rising Suicide Rates Tied to Financial Struggles." Newsmax. Newsmax

Media, 27 Feb. 2015. Web. 01 Feb. 2017.

Warne, Lewis. "How Differences in the Cost of Living Affect Low-Income Families."

Free-Market Public Policy. National Center for Policy Analysis, Oct.-Nov. 2013. Web. 01 Feb.

2017.

Zimmermann, Jackie. "6 in 10 Americans Will Experience Poverty." Time. Time, June-

July 2015. Web. 01 Feb. 2017.

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