[jIM_Ohio]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

I definitely think the family and circumstances into which you are born make a big difference. Sure, there are stories of people who grew up poor and escaped poverty to become very successful, but it is certainly much harder to do that than to be born into middle or upper class and succeed from there.

I work in a poor area and I see the culture of poverty that exists. The lack of parental support and involvment with the kids, the lower quality of education available, the high crime rate, the drug abuse, the domestic abuse, the poor nutrition, etc. It is tough to rise above all of that.

There is a big mental/psychological factor to all of it, I think. If everyone around you is poor, living on welfare, smoking, drinking, doing drugs, getting into fights, etc., that's what you grow up knowing.

While I agree surroundings factor in, they can also polarize. My family was terrible growing up. Verbally abusive and really bad with money.

Yet I figured out how to overcome it.

I won't buy luck as a factor. If you work hard others will consider you lucky.