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Not too dumb, but badly educated about money (part of why they stay poor) and probabilities.
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Poor people stay poor because it’s really hard to climb out of poverty. It’s a function of opportunity, culture, society, and a lot more stuff. Education is a factor but I am doubtful it’s the primary one, and even where it is a major factor, it’s probably more general education than specifically about money.

I feel like the “poor people don’t understand money” line of thought comes from the same people who insist that avocado toast and lattes are why millennials can’t afford housing.


> it’s really hard to climb out of poverty. It’s a function of opportunity, culture, society, and a lot more stuff

I agree with you, but perhaps from the other direction. I think American society in particular gives an amazing amount of opportunity for people to climb out of poverty, or at least we used to, before we started "replacing what works with what sounded good". But we still do, for the most part.

Most of the cultural and social factors that prevent someone from lifting themselves up are self-imposed by those individual cultures and societies, and as of late, it's become verboten to call them out on it. There exist subgroups in this country where you'd indeed have to be a truly remarkable individual to claw yourself out of it into wealth. However, it doesn't have to be that way; that's a choice society made, on what grounds exactly I'm not sure, but the choice was made nevertheless.


> I think American society in particular gives an amazing amount of opportunity for people to climb out of poverty, or at least we used to

I agree that we are better than many places for this, but also much worse than we could be.

> Most of the cultural and social factors that prevent someone from lifting themselves up are self-imposed by those individual cultures and societies

I agree with this. There are huge social and cultural aspects of poverty.




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