For the first time in eight years, poverty has increased in America. Figures released by the Census Bureau on September 24 show that income levels have fallen in large segments of the population, regardless of race, creed or economic status. Amongst those currently descending the economic ladder to others just entering poverty, downward mobility can be a psychologically painful experience.
"Many people judge themselves by the possessions they own," says Donald Moine, Ph.D., an expert in business and investor psychology. The psychological connection between possessions and self-worth is exposed with slipping economic mobility. "It is extremely stressful," says Moine. "You have to readjust your self-image."
Those who do not adjust their self-image —and their lifestyle —will eventually face an insurmountable level of debt, worries Moine. "Many of those people will never have jobs that pay as much as they used to make," he says. And with debt levels having been already high in the 1990s, accumulating additional debt in the current weak economy could easily throw more people into poverty.
