I am currently reading a book which attempts to explain why it is so difficult to remove poverty. I thought that reasoning given there can be extended to the current topic " We all understand the importance of shibir & still contribute so little to it. Why?"

Book takes an example of a poor person who can save enough in a year to pay for his  son's school fees. However what happens in real life is he postpones his savings to "tomorrow" & spends money on frivolous things like snacks for his son or monthly cable TV subscription. Result is that at the end of year his son is unable to continue in the school.

Authors say that there are two reasons for this behavior ; first is what they call "time inconsistency" i.e. human mind gives more value to today's easy & simple pleasures as compared to what "might" be available in future. This is clearly applicable to most of us. While we understand that shibir is important, today's small inconveniences in attending shibir or some engagements appear to have exaggerated importance in our mind as compared to benefits of shibir which are far more important, but are in "future". I think only way to face this is to be aware of such an effect & keep on asking ourselves all the time if we are sacrificing future happiness for today's enjoyment.

Second reason authors say why people behave like this is because the benefits are vague in mind & are not clearly spelled out. Thus in the above example that poor person may not be fully aware of what exactly would school do for his child. Similarly, may be we need to understand more clearly what exactly shibir is giving us & our children. If we make our own list of benefits of shibir maybe we will realise, how important it is & now little we are contributing towards its functioning.