Poor and middle class as a mentality

[paxmao]

Some people are born rich or moderately rich, some are born middle class and some are born poor or extremely poor. All these conditions come along with a set of survival guides that the parents, relatives and even teachers will pass along as a map of life. For example, in a school of a country that does not give opportunity to its people, where most of the students are poor, it is unlikely that the teachers will induce them to think big or have big dreams...more likely they will aim to keep them apart from drugs, avoid problems with the government and try to imbue some basic skill for life. The ultra-poor do not even get that - which actually may be better.

In a preppy school, where most of the students are rich-born, the conversation is quite different. Culture, life, opportunity, spirit-de-corps and class mentality are imbued in the same manner, so the kids will somehow justify in their minds that they have the right to be rich even if they have not done anything for anyone in their lives - perhaps not even for themselves - because of some Darwinian property of cosmos.

As a result, the poor and even middle class have to jump over one real barrier, their lack of funds, and more importantly, like the Elephant that learns young that he cannot break the chains and never tries again, over their own state of mind, their own prison set by the terms of those who trying to help taught them to avoid anything but doing the same that keeps them poor.

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[Charles-Tim]

Although, there could be few exceptional cases, but I noticed the poor will marry the poor, the rich will marry the rich, which automatically means the average will marry the average, this alone can prove your point validity an it is valid. The kind of exposure/environment the poor men children will experience is totally different from that which the rich men children will experience, this alone will give them different mentality. The rich men children are exposed to where there are opportunities while the poor men children are exposed to where there are less opportunities. The school, the street, the people the rich men and their children know etc is enough to let their mentality to be totally different from the poor people's mentality, also average people have theirs.

[Iphomme]

Some people are born rich or moderately rich, some are born middle class and some are born poor or extremely poor. All these conditions come along with a set of survival guides that the parents, relatives and even teachers will pass along as a map of life. For example, in a school of a country that does not give opportunity to its people, where most of the students are poor, it is unlikely that the teachers will induce them to think big or have big dreams...more likely they will aim to keep them apart from drugs, avoid problems with the government and try to imbue some basic skill for life. The ultra-poor do not even get that - which actually may be better.

In a preppy school, where most of the students are rich-born, the conversation is quite different. Culture, life, opportunity, spirit-de-corps and class mentality are imbued in the same manner, so the kids will somehow justify in their minds that they have the right to be rich even if they have not done anything for anyone in their lives - perhaps not even for themselves - because of some Darwinian property of cosmos.

As a result, the poor and even middle class have to jump over one real barrier, their lack of funds, and more importantly, like the Elephant that learns young that he cannot break the chains and never tries again, over their own state of mind, their own prison set by the terms of those who trying to help taught them to avoid anything but doing the same that keeps them poor.

   Although we have a different class status of life and people have their own decisions to choose their life but in old generation once you are rich they are the one can enter the school universe, they are very lucky but in poor status they are just an slave for the rich people. Unlike now we are in democratic we can decide whatever we like and we want. Were so lucky to have a freedom but some situation are still exist but they just hide it.

[davis196]

The educational system usually teaches the people to be obedient and to follow the rules.
You can't become rich,if you are obedient.Rich people are usually making and breaking the rules,not following them.By "rules" I don't mean the law,but this can be applied to the law ass well.Gangsters and mobsters are coming from poor families,but they break the law and become rich.
Following the rules set by others is a poor person's mentality.Get a college degree,get a job,get a mortgage,get a wife and have kids,retire after 40 years of working.You can't become rich without creativity and without thinking outside the box.

[dothebeats]

As someone who was raised in a poverty-stricken country with parents who have nothing to offer, I agree with these thoughts. We were raised to believe that school is what's the most important thing there is for us to be successful in life, and even if we had a chance to immigrate to the US for some time, the teachings about school never changed. We were never taught to take risks and dream big, though I can proudly say that I was able to do so and get positive results in my life. The mindset alongside the teachings change greatly as more opportunities become available to a person.

[Ucy]

Sometimes i feel certain people who have suffered alot of poverty are always scared of being poor or are too obsessed with class thing (poor,rich, middle class etc)

If you ask me what neighborhood i'd like to live in even though i wasn't really born rich or poor, i will choose good rural neighborhood full of "poor people". This is wisdom for those who understand.

All cells that make up human body are living lowly or humble life in the body, once they start becoming puffed-up or prideful,they could become Cancers and start increasing in size, creating tumors and becoming problems to the body.  Hope we know how cancer cells are treated by owner of the body.

[worle1bm]

There is one very beautiful quote by Bill Gates which fits best in this type of situation according to me.

"If you are born poor then it's not your mistake but if you die poor then it's your mistake.

I have seen many entrepreneurs and businessmen who have setup a billion dollar empire out of nothing and have spend their intial years of life in miserable condition of poverty but that dream and hard work was the factor which keeps them running and alive on their road.We can't say that we need to have like minded people who are say always discussing about important topics and teachers who have graduated from Oxford University to guide you how to succeed in life because you mind is the best support to you and have no limits but you just need to have knowledge of how to unlock it.Surviving in any conditions will give you the experience of life and how to deal with real world problems in life which are not being taught in any school but you learn themselves.But yes your mentality has a vital role to play in deciding your future life because if you want to be rich you will work for it and say 10-20% luck needs to be there.Rest you create history if this happen and next generation read about you in your biographies.

[Wexnident]

That's just how reality is. Inequality was set even before you were given the ability to think, and you can only lament on it once you've realized your own situation was different from the situation of others. Realizing that and accepting it early on could help you develop and move forward, but it's not like it's a sin to actually not accept it or complain about it. If you were poor, then just earn money, now if it was only that easy right? It's like those words skipped steps 2-99 and just went from step 1 to step 100 in terms of guiding people.

Sometimes i feel certain people who have suffered alot of poverty are always scared of being poor or are too obsessed with class thing (poor,rich, middle class etc)

And we can't exactly blame them. Their situation just pretty much forces them to face how their current class affects their current life.

[semobo]

Life will never stop teaches lessons but it's up to the people whether they learn anything from it or not. There are a lot of millionaires and billionaires who started from nothing then they built their empire which we never know how to do it in any schools only the experience and problems facing in our life will do that. It may take time, like decades and generation but surely a poor man can change into a rich personality only if they realize what is going on in the world.

School is a place to learn the basic things but we need to learn everything on our own if we stand out in this world.

[BrewMaster]

in my experience we can't categorize people like this based on their class and expect them to remain in that class just because they had or didn't have certain opportunities or the education to better themselves.

i have seen people from all groups go the other direction, for example rich kids who had zero education even though they had the privilege and ended up poor and poor kids who became so much more successful than anyone with better education and resources.

besides, the education is not just what you learn in schools. it is mostly what you learn from your life. you also don't need to see success to learn how to become successful, you can see failure and learn from those mistakes to not make them yourself.

[oHnK]

Poor and rich are social problems that all countries have.  In the book I read entitled "Zakat", it is said that the solution for the poor and the rich is zakat, in the wealth of the rich there is a right for the poor 2.5% of the total because the essence of man was created to be a leader, when he is well off and has wealth.  If there is excess, then look at your family first, when your family is poor, in your property there is the right of your family and it is obligatory for you to give it.  When your family is prosperous then look at your surroundings, if your neighbor is poor, your neighbor has rights in your property and it is obligatory for you to give it.  When is it said that you are obliged to pay zakat for the poor, when your wealth has met the nisab (rules for calculating it), that is, your wealth is equivalent to 85 grams of gold.  With this zakat, wealth will be distributed to the needy according to the proportion so that human life becomes prosperous.

[Renampun]

...

rich or poor is not destiny, but mindset...

God is not favoritism to humans, some are born rich but that doesn't mean those who are born poor can't be rich. if the poor try hard by continuing to study and work smarter then he too has a great chance to become rich, just look at how Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuck who were not born into a rich family but can become very rich today.

[Cling18]

Rich and poor people have different environments but as individuals no matter what your social status is, you should grind hard to make your life better. You should dream bigger so you wouldn't remain poor. Instead of making the status of being poor as an excuse, it would be better to make it as an inspiration to strive and grind harder. If we're all rich, then we'll never know how to deal with the hardships of life.

[sapnu]

Some people are born rich or moderately rich, some are born middle class and some are born poor or extremely poor. All these conditions come along with a set of survival guides that the parents, relatives and even teachers will pass along as a map of life. For example, in a school of a country that does not give opportunity to its people, where most of the students are poor, it is unlikely that the teachers will induce them to think big or have big dreams...more likely they will aim to keep them apart from drugs, avoid problems with the government and try to imbue some basic skill for life. The ultra-poor do not even get that - which actually may be better.

In a preppy school, where most of the students are rich-born, the conversation is quite different. Culture, life, opportunity, spirit-de-corps and class mentality are imbued in the same manner, so the kids will somehow justify in their minds that they have the right to be rich even if they have not done anything for anyone in their lives - perhaps not even for themselves - because of some Darwinian property of cosmos.

As a result, the poor and even middle class have to jump over one real barrier, their lack of funds, and more importantly, like the Elephant that learns young that he cannot break the chains and never tries again, over their own state of mind, their own prison set by the terms of those who trying to help taught them to avoid anything but doing the same that keeps them poor.

When it comes to mentality, poor and middle class individuals are only different for a bit. The poor ones tend to settle for less and prioritize surviving each day amidst how unjust the treatment of the world is towards them. Those in the middle class are those who are trying to survive and settle for less but with a hope that one day they will escape the prison that has encaged them since birth. In life, it's all about the mind most of the time. It's the way you see and perceive things wherein the ways lies under such and you only need to look at the right direction to finally find a way out.

[hatshepsut93]

First, there's not enough resources in the world to make everyone rich or middle class. So, no matter how hard you try to solve this problem, poor people will always exist. And next, social status can change. Poor people can make smart decisions and get a great career or become entrepreneurs, and rich kids can absolutely go broke by mismanaging their inherited wealth. Children are not copies of their parents.

[just_Alice]

IMO if we're not taking extreme cases (e.g. poor people that don't even have home, computer, and Internet access, can't read books, etc.), the mentality nowadays isn't defined only by the class in which you are born. Yes, school plays an important role, but you can read inspiring books, watch movies, learn history and, thus, change your mentality, learn to dream big. That's the awesomeness of our world - the open-source, you can find anything you want and self-educate, only if you are willing to.

[perryxi2]

what you say seems quite right compared to the realities of today's society. Why do I often think that children born in the wealthy class are different from poor children? If a rich child goes to school, the preschool teacher will treat him better or the learning environment will be more special than other poor children. And the psychology of poor children they only learn basic things such as literacy, but compared to rich children with rich families, they want their children to have dreams and study in good environments. but to later inherit the property they left and continue to develop it.

[jaysabi]

Some people are born rich or moderately rich, some are born middle class and some are born poor or extremely poor. All these conditions come along with a set of survival guides that the parents, relatives and even teachers will pass along as a map of life. For example, in a school of a country that does not give opportunity to its people, where most of the students are poor, it is unlikely that the teachers will induce them to think big or have big dreams...more likely they will aim to keep them apart from drugs, avoid problems with the government and try to imbue some basic skill for life. The ultra-poor do not even get that - which actually may be better.

In a preppy school, where most of the students are rich-born, the conversation is quite different. Culture, life, opportunity, spirit-de-corps and class mentality are imbued in the same manner, so the kids will somehow justify in their minds that they have the right to be rich even if they have not done anything for anyone in their lives - perhaps not even for themselves - because of some Darwinian property of cosmos.

As a result, the poor and even middle class have to jump over one real barrier, their lack of funds, and more importantly, like the Elephant that learns young that he cannot break the chains and never tries again, over their own state of mind, their own prison set by the terms of those who trying to help taught them to avoid anything but doing the same that keeps them poor.

Your middle paragraph is what I agree with the most and you can expand on that.  People who are born into a higher classes see nothing but opportunities and tend to blame those born without such opportunities as the cause of their own lack of success, so the conversations they have about wealth are much different than the conversations about wealth the poorer classes have.  When you're born into privilege, you don't see all the barriers that prevent the lower classes from having the same opportunities because they're literally invisible to you and don't impact you.  When born into the lower classes, it's far easier to see how much better the upper classes have it and see the barriers that prevent you from moving up as intentionally designed, whether they were or not (but let's be honest, most of the time they were).  Even the middle class has far more opportunities than someone who was born poor.

[Coyster]

For example, in a school of a country that does not give opportunity to its people, where most of the students are poor, it is unlikely that the teachers will induce them to think big or have big dreams...more likely they will aim to keep them apart from drugs, avoid problems with the government and try to imbue some basic skill for life. The ultra-poor do not even get that - which actually may be better.

Just for the fact that we don't live in a classless society, people are bound to have better opportunities/stand better chances of success than others even right from birth, even ones country of birth other than the immediate family plays a part in that, it's much better to be born in a developed country than an underdeveloped one, but even having said that, it doesn't mean than if one is privileged to have such advantages that they outrightly will be better than those who are not, of course their chances are higher, but they still have work to do on their own path, thus even people from poor backgrounds/underprivileged countries still break the chain and achieve success, hardwork has a lot to play in success, though a good background makes things a whole lot easier.

[tabas]

I'm born and my family isn't rich but I can classify as poor. But that didn't stopped my parents to think big with their dreams and as well as dreamed big for me and my siblings.
Well, today, I cannot say that we're rich now but I can say that we're living differently and at least we're able to get our basic needs and with a few of small things and wants that we desire.