Elf Sternberg

Frum is such a jerk. These wealthy right wingers are always blathering on about "the poor" as if they were a different species than the rich, with a fundamentally different psychology. If fear confers virtue upon the poor, then what is supposed to be keeping the rich in line? Should we perhaps revive the threat of the guillotine, for their own moral good?

Anyway, the actual research suggests the opposite. Willpower appears to be a finite resource, and if you use up all of it trying to stretch your inadequate budget, you don't have any left to resist other temptations. More economic certainty would breed more social stability among the poor, not less. And I think this is intuitively true -- times of great fear area the times when society breaks down. Frightened people turn on each other. And desperate people are more likely to commit crimes.