It's an interesting and often-repeated theory, but the data is overwhelming: People born in poor environments do much worse than those born in wealthier environments.
The massive difference in resources seems like a place to start. Compare the percentage of kids who get into college from poor urban public schools, where many kids aren't even functionally literate and classes lack books, and wealthy suburban public schools.
But whatever the cause, the bar is far too high in poor neighborhoods for most people to get over.
I would say that those born into poor cultures do poorly.
Those cultures that are no longer poor were more conducive to escaping poverty.
The evidence is compelling in places that dropped government control of everything and millions of people have moved out of poverty in just a generation or two.
China is a good example. Everybody started out poor but they still had an ethic or working hard, saving for the future and education.
Other people are born with the same opportunities but not the same values and don't take advantage of those opportunities.
Its not the poor neighborhood. Its the poor ideas in people's heads. Change that and the neighborhood changes too.
The massive difference in resources seems like a place to start. Compare the percentage of kids who get into college from poor urban public schools, where many kids aren't even functionally literate and classes lack books, and wealthy suburban public schools.
But whatever the cause, the bar is far too high in poor neighborhoods for most people to get over.
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