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On paper alone you would never guess that I grew up poor and hungry. My most recent annual salary was over $700，000. I am a Truman National Security Fellow and a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations.1 My publisher has just released my latest book series on quantitative finance in worldwide distribution.
None of it feels like enough. I feel as though I am wired for a permanent state of fight or flight， waiting for the other shoe to drop.2 I’ve chosen not to have children， partly because—despite any success—I still don’t feel I have a safety net. If you knew me personally， you might get glimpses of stress， self-doubt， anxiety， and depression.
In my childhood， I spent a lot of my time pondering3 basic questions. Where will my next meal come from？ Will I have electricity tomorrow？ I became intimately acquainted with the embarrassment of my mom trying to hide our food stamps4 at the grocery store checkout. I remember panic setting in as early as age eight， at the prospect of a perpetual uncertainty about everything in life，5 from food to clothes to education. I knew that the life I was living couldn’t be normal. Something was wrong with the tiny microcosm6 I was born into. I just wasn’t sure what it was.
As an adult I thought I’d figured that out. I’d always thought my upbringing had made me wary and cautious， in a “lessons learned” kind of way. Over the past decades， though， that narrative has evolved. We’ve learned that the stresses associated with poverty have the potential to change our biology in ways we hadn’t imagined. It can reduce the surface area of your brain， shorten your telomeres and lifespan， increase your chances of obesity，7 and make you more likely to take outsized risks.
Now， new evidence is emerging suggesting the changes can go even deeper—to how our bodies assemble themselves， shifting the types of cells that they are made from， and maybe even how our genetic code is expressed， playing with it like a Rubik’s cube thrown into a running washing machine.8 If this science holds up， it means that poverty is more than just a socioeconomic condition. It is a collection of related symptoms that are preventable， treatable—and even inheritable.9 In other words， the effects of poverty begin to look very much like the symptoms of a disease.
That word—disease—carries a stigma10 with it. By using it here， I don’t mean that the poor are （that I am） inferior11 or compromised. I mean that the poor are afflicted， and told by the rest of the world that their condition is a necessary， temporary， and even positive part of modern capitalism.12 We tell the poor that they have the chance to escape if they just work hard enough； that we are all equally invested in a system that doles out13 rewards and punishments in equal measure. We point at the rare rags-to-riches stories like my own， which seem to play into the standard meritocracy template.14 But merit has little to do with how I got out.
I have relatives and friends who are as bright and hardworking as I am， with roughly the same kind of educational path or better. But none of them made it out of poverty. They would not， as I did， find the path to graduation curiously free of obstacles. They would not become， as I did， head of a derivatives15 trading desk on Wall Street. They are not， as I am， writing about poverty. They are still living it.
Why do so few make it out of poverty？ I can tell you from experience it is not because some have more merit than others. It is because being poor is a high-risk gamble. The asymmetry16 of outcomes for the poor is so enormous because it is so expensive to be poor. Imagine losing a job because your phone was cut off， or blowing off an exam because you spent the day in the ER dealing with something that preventative care would have avoided completely.17 Something as simple as that can spark a spiral of adversity almost impossible to recover from.18 The reality is that when you’re poor， if you make one mistake， you’re done. Everything becomes a sudden-death gamble.
It’s time for us to update our response to poverty to take into account the new science that describes it.
We should leverage19 the lessons of the science of poverty rather than ignore them. Poverty alleviation programs encourage stress alleviation and long-term planning that is far upstream of doing well on an exam20—they provide exactly the kind of certainty that the poverty-stricken brain needs. Such programs lowered salivary cortisol levels and reduced lifetime risk for a range of mental and physical disorders.21 There should be more programs like these， for example， the so-called wholechild policies， which focus on the long-term development of children starting from birth while reducing uncertainty during the first three years of childhood development.
We stand at the precipice22 if we don’t re-evaluate our understanding of poverty and inequality. The narrative in the neo-liberal23 west is that if you work hard， things work out. If things don’t work out， we have the tendency to blame the victim， leaving them without any choices. Brexit， Le Pen， and the defeat of Hillary Clinton are examples of the cracks that result from inequality and poverty， symptoms of my childhood experience writ large.24
It is high time that we abandoned the blind belief that the poor have failed to seize the opportunities that the market or globalization has created. This myth deserves to be taken off life support—and the emerging， empirical25， and carefully observed science of poverty can help us do so if we pay it the attention it deserves. 1. Truman National Security Fellow：
杜鲁门国家安全项目成员；Council on Foreign Relations： 美国外交关系协会，是美国对外政策宣传与研究机构，每年提供会员培训项目（Term Member Program）。
2. 我感到焦躁不安，仿佛一直处在或战或逃的状态，随时等待着坏消息的降临。wired： 极度紧张的；fight or flight： 战斗或逃跑反应，指面对压力或紧急情况时身体做出的防御、挣扎或者逃跑的反应；wait for the other shoe to drop： 等待不可避免的、糟糕的事发生。
3. ponder： 仔细思考。
4. food stamp： 发给失业者或贫民的食品券，粮票。
5. set in： 来临，降临；prospect： 前景，可能发生的事；perpetual：永久的，无期限的。
6. microcosm： 缩影，微观世界。
7. telomere： // 端粒，是染色体末端的一小段DNA-蛋白质复合体，在控制细胞生长及寿命方面具有重要作用；obesity： 肥胖，肥胖症。
8. 如今新证据的出现表明，我们在生理上会发生更深层次的变化，诸如我们身体的构造、细胞的构成类型，甚至是基因表现出的性状——就像是将魔方扔进洗衣机玩弄一样。express： 在表型中表现（某一基因的性状）；Rubik’s cube： 魔方。
9. symptom： 症状，征兆；inheritable：可遗传的。
10. stigma： 污名，耻辱。
11. inferior： 低级的，下等的。
12. afflict： 使受折磨，使苦恼；capitalism： 资本主义。
13. dole out： 发放，发给。
14. rags-to-riches： 贫穷到富裕的，白手起家的；meritocracy：/
/英才制度；template： 样板，榜样。
15. derivative： 金融衍生品工具，指由商品、股票或债券等衍生而来的交易，如期货。
16. asymmetry： // 不对称（性）。
17. blow off： 缺席，取消；ER： 急诊室（emergency room）；preventative care： 预防保健。
18. spiral： 螺旋式上升（或下降）；adversity： 苦难，祸患。
19. leverage： v. 利用，控制。
20. 脱贫项目提倡缓解压力和长期规划，使得其在考验中表现十分突出。alleviation： 减轻，缓和；upstream： 上游的。
21. salivary： // 唾液的；cortisol：// 皮质醇，在压力状态下，皮质醇可帮助维持身体正常生理机能。
22. precipice： // 险境。
23. neo-liberal： 新自由主义的。新自由主义是一种政治与经济哲学，强调自由市场的机制，反对国家对国内经济的干预以及对商业行为和财产权的管制。
24. Brexit： 英国脱欧；Le Pen： 玛丽娜·勒庞（Marine Le Pen， 1968— ），曾任“国民阵线”领导人，有“法国最危险的女人”之稱，在2017年法国总统大选中败给埃马纽埃尔·马克龙；Hillary Clinton： 希拉里·克林顿，美国第67任国务卿，在2016年总统大选中败给特朗普；crack：（想法、制度或机构中的）缺点，问题；writ large： 扩大的，更大程度（或规模）的。
25. empirical： 经验主义的，以观察或实验为根据的。
None of it feels like enough. I feel as though I am wired for a permanent state of fight or flight， waiting for the other shoe to drop.2 I’ve chosen not to have children， partly because—despite any success—I still don’t feel I have a safety net. If you knew me personally， you might get glimpses of stress， self-doubt， anxiety， and depression.
In my childhood， I spent a lot of my time pondering3 basic questions. Where will my next meal come from？ Will I have electricity tomorrow？ I became intimately acquainted with the embarrassment of my mom trying to hide our food stamps4 at the grocery store checkout. I remember panic setting in as early as age eight， at the prospect of a perpetual uncertainty about everything in life，5 from food to clothes to education. I knew that the life I was living couldn’t be normal. Something was wrong with the tiny microcosm6 I was born into. I just wasn’t sure what it was.
As an adult I thought I’d figured that out. I’d always thought my upbringing had made me wary and cautious， in a “lessons learned” kind of way. Over the past decades， though， that narrative has evolved. We’ve learned that the stresses associated with poverty have the potential to change our biology in ways we hadn’t imagined. It can reduce the surface area of your brain， shorten your telomeres and lifespan， increase your chances of obesity，7 and make you more likely to take outsized risks.
Now， new evidence is emerging suggesting the changes can go even deeper—to how our bodies assemble themselves， shifting the types of cells that they are made from， and maybe even how our genetic code is expressed， playing with it like a Rubik’s cube thrown into a running washing machine.8 If this science holds up， it means that poverty is more than just a socioeconomic condition. It is a collection of related symptoms that are preventable， treatable—and even inheritable.9 In other words， the effects of poverty begin to look very much like the symptoms of a disease.
That word—disease—carries a stigma10 with it. By using it here， I don’t mean that the poor are （that I am） inferior11 or compromised. I mean that the poor are afflicted， and told by the rest of the world that their condition is a necessary， temporary， and even positive part of modern capitalism.12 We tell the poor that they have the chance to escape if they just work hard enough； that we are all equally invested in a system that doles out13 rewards and punishments in equal measure. We point at the rare rags-to-riches stories like my own， which seem to play into the standard meritocracy template.14 But merit has little to do with how I got out.
I have relatives and friends who are as bright and hardworking as I am， with roughly the same kind of educational path or better. But none of them made it out of poverty. They would not， as I did， find the path to graduation curiously free of obstacles. They would not become， as I did， head of a derivatives15 trading desk on Wall Street. They are not， as I am， writing about poverty. They are still living it.
Why do so few make it out of poverty？ I can tell you from experience it is not because some have more merit than others. It is because being poor is a high-risk gamble. The asymmetry16 of outcomes for the poor is so enormous because it is so expensive to be poor. Imagine losing a job because your phone was cut off， or blowing off an exam because you spent the day in the ER dealing with something that preventative care would have avoided completely.17 Something as simple as that can spark a spiral of adversity almost impossible to recover from.18 The reality is that when you’re poor， if you make one mistake， you’re done. Everything becomes a sudden-death gamble.
It’s time for us to update our response to poverty to take into account the new science that describes it.
We should leverage19 the lessons of the science of poverty rather than ignore them. Poverty alleviation programs encourage stress alleviation and long-term planning that is far upstream of doing well on an exam20—they provide exactly the kind of certainty that the poverty-stricken brain needs. Such programs lowered salivary cortisol levels and reduced lifetime risk for a range of mental and physical disorders.21 There should be more programs like these， for example， the so-called wholechild policies， which focus on the long-term development of children starting from birth while reducing uncertainty during the first three years of childhood development.
We stand at the precipice22 if we don’t re-evaluate our understanding of poverty and inequality. The narrative in the neo-liberal23 west is that if you work hard， things work out. If things don’t work out， we have the tendency to blame the victim， leaving them without any choices. Brexit， Le Pen， and the defeat of Hillary Clinton are examples of the cracks that result from inequality and poverty， symptoms of my childhood experience writ large.24
It is high time that we abandoned the blind belief that the poor have failed to seize the opportunities that the market or globalization has created. This myth deserves to be taken off life support—and the emerging， empirical25， and carefully observed science of poverty can help us do so if we pay it the attention it deserves. 1. Truman National Security Fellow：
杜鲁门国家安全项目成员；Council on Foreign Relations： 美国外交关系协会，是美国对外政策宣传与研究机构，每年提供会员培训项目（Term Member Program）。
2. 我感到焦躁不安，仿佛一直处在或战或逃的状态，随时等待着坏消息的降临。wired： 极度紧张的；fight or flight： 战斗或逃跑反应，指面对压力或紧急情况时身体做出的防御、挣扎或者逃跑的反应；wait for the other shoe to drop： 等待不可避免的、糟糕的事发生。
3. ponder： 仔细思考。
4. food stamp： 发给失业者或贫民的食品券，粮票。
5. set in： 来临，降临；prospect： 前景，可能发生的事；perpetual：永久的，无期限的。
6. microcosm： 缩影，微观世界。
7. telomere： // 端粒，是染色体末端的一小段DNA-蛋白质复合体，在控制细胞生长及寿命方面具有重要作用；obesity： 肥胖，肥胖症。
8. 如今新证据的出现表明，我们在生理上会发生更深层次的变化，诸如我们身体的构造、细胞的构成类型，甚至是基因表现出的性状——就像是将魔方扔进洗衣机玩弄一样。express： 在表型中表现（某一基因的性状）；Rubik’s cube： 魔方。
9. symptom： 症状，征兆；inheritable：可遗传的。
10. stigma： 污名，耻辱。
11. inferior： 低级的，下等的。
12. afflict： 使受折磨，使苦恼；capitalism： 资本主义。
13. dole out： 发放，发给。
14. rags-to-riches： 贫穷到富裕的，白手起家的；meritocracy：/
/英才制度；template： 样板，榜样。
15. derivative： 金融衍生品工具，指由商品、股票或债券等衍生而来的交易，如期货。
16. asymmetry： // 不对称（性）。
17. blow off： 缺席，取消；ER： 急诊室（emergency room）；preventative care： 预防保健。
18. spiral： 螺旋式上升（或下降）；adversity： 苦难，祸患。
19. leverage： v. 利用，控制。
20. 脱贫项目提倡缓解压力和长期规划，使得其在考验中表现十分突出。alleviation： 减轻，缓和；upstream： 上游的。
21. salivary： // 唾液的；cortisol：// 皮质醇，在压力状态下，皮质醇可帮助维持身体正常生理机能。
22. precipice： // 险境。
23. neo-liberal： 新自由主义的。新自由主义是一种政治与经济哲学，强调自由市场的机制，反对国家对国内经济的干预以及对商业行为和财产权的管制。
24. Brexit： 英国脱欧；Le Pen： 玛丽娜·勒庞（Marine Le Pen， 1968— ），曾任“国民阵线”领导人，有“法国最危险的女人”之稱，在2017年法国总统大选中败给埃马纽埃尔·马克龙；Hillary Clinton： 希拉里·克林顿，美国第67任国务卿，在2016年总统大选中败给特朗普；crack：（想法、制度或机构中的）缺点，问题；writ large： 扩大的，更大程度（或规模）的。
25. empirical： 经验主义的，以观察或实验为根据的。