I classify poor people into three catagories.
1. The people that see what others have and decide they want the same things. They are what I call hungry for the better things in life. They know what they want, and they figure out how to get it. When road blocks jump into their way they find a way around, over, or through them. Then they go for it, by going to a trade school, into the military, or finding some way to go to college. But these folks never give up, they have a drive to succeed. They become very successful.
2. The people that see what others have and decide they want the same things. But when they try and get there, road blocks keep popping up. Or something they have no control of takes hold of their lives and they are not able to overcome that adversity. They give up, or decide they were not meant to have the better things in life and accept the position they are currently in. Their drive to succeed just is not strong enough. These often are good hearted people, that work hard and try, it's just they don't have the focus and the drive required.
3. The people that see what others have and decide they want the same things. But they have no drive, no burning desire to succeed. They give up before they even start. They sit back and wait for someone to hand it to them. When that does not happen they get bitter, and start demanding it. These are the lazy scumbags many people feel need help. Personally I feel they need to be taken out of the gene pool. Because they pass on their views and beliefs to their offspring. Society is better off with out them.
I grew up poor, my father was uneducated, as was my mother. Ours was one of the families that the church groups brought boxes of food to for Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The rest of the year we went to bed hungry many nights. No breakfast, dried beans and corn bread for lunch, same thing for dinner with maybe an onion if we were lucky. Many days Mom would send us out to pick Polk along the road so we would have some greens with our beans. Farmers in the area would let us clean out their gardens after they had taken what they wanted. Five boys, skinny as rails, obviously malnourished. If someone asked us what we had been eating, if we told my mother would correct us by telling that someone she had fixed a roast, or pork chops, along with the things we mentioned. Then when we got home behind closed doors we got one heck of a beating, for saying such a thing. When I started working my mother would take all my pay checks and keep the money, saying that she needed it to cloth and feed me, and my brothers. When I graduated from high school I ran away and lied about my age and joined the Air Force. Mom sent the sheriff out looking for me, to bring me back home. But by the time they located me I was in Tech school and just had my 18th birthday so they could not force me back. I feel I became very successful. My middle brother also ran away, married a rich girl whose father made him go to college and set him up in business. Today he is a millionaire and happy. My youngest brother was put in reform school by Mom because he would not toe the line for her. He managed to excape and ran away to Texas. He met an older woman and got married. She pushed him to go back and finish high school. He then went to Texas A&M. Today he is an Executive with Raytheon. So I know poor people that have the drive can succeed. By the way, my other two brothers one is in group 2, the other is in group 3.