When you're dirt poor living in the slums of some god awful neighborhood with a crack addict mom and no one really to look out for you, what kind of hope do you really have? Yes, scrounge up that attitude my boy, pick yourself up by the bootstraps and make something of yourself.
Most "poor" people in this country cannot claim to be destitute in the way your describe: crack addicted mother, father in prison or who knows where, all their relatives and neighbors are the same way so they have nobody, not even a concerned neighbor who provides that second home. That sure describes some of them, many perhaps, but not all.
I'm not speaking of the most destitute of children because there is little hope for them. They have been failed by their mother, their father, their grandparents, their extended family, their neighbors, and their community. I don't entertain any delusions these children can be helped since everyone else has failed them. The only hope for them is to be taken at an early age from the hopelessly incompetent parents they were cursed with, parent's whose problems go far deeper than class or income, because you aren't going to 'rehabilitate' a crack whore.
But while we're on the subject of crack addicts, ask any police officer whose patrol includes high crime areas where prostitution is rampant how many of these prostitutes are from middle class homes. Quite a few. So if middle class standard of living does not preclude your child from becoming addicted to drugs and turning to prostitution, then this isn't all about money or class.
Not that it would be the first time in history that a 'disadvantaged' child who has essentially raised themselves for whatever reason might turn-out to be a productive member of society without the assistance of any 'social intervention programs'. There are numerous examples that prove people can and do, as you say, 'scrounge up that attitude, pick themselves up by their bootstraps and make something of themselves'.
In fact, examples are legion, if you look for them, but I understand the underlying reason why we not only don't look for them, we pretend they are rare or don't exist at all.
There is nothing quite like a classic rags to riches, or at least rags to middle class, story to make some people confront how much of a failure they are by comparison. Do you see why? So here's this person who was raised in a home that possessed every single criterion to qualify for what we have come to call "disadvantaged", yet he has accomplished as much or more than we have although we had all the advantages by comparison. DAMNED HIM TO HELL FOR MAKING ME LOOK SO BAD!
It's difficult to make excuses that generate sympathy for why you haven't achieved or have all these character flaws when someone else, who had a far more tragic upbringing than you, is out there getting it done without making any excuses.
Does that mean such "self-made" people don't have emotional scars from their upbringins? Not at all, they just don't believe its appropriate to jump on Oprah and tell the world about them because A. nobody really cares anyway, everyone has their own problems to worry about, and B. complaining doesn't change your situation, only action does (attitude).
But there's an even more sinister force at work. When you have discovered, as many politicians have, we all KNOW who they are, that you can get elected by making a constituency out of all those people who are disposed to offer excuses and sob-stories for why they haven't achieved and possess all these character flaws, that's a powerful interest in seeing that rags to riches stories are quashed, discounted, misrepresented, or are portrayed as the rare exception to a more depressing and inevitable rule.
Of course, when such a politician makes appeals to this kind of consitutuency, generation after generation, it does become the rule, rationalization becomes reality, because the excuses and sob-stories become ingrained into the conciousness of the community, they become truisms merely by a feat of perception, as the reasons they cannot achieve or have all these character flaws.
Personally, I find rags to riches stories to be uplifting and moving, they make me "feel" pretty damned good. I think 'God Bless America', one of the few places on earth you'll ever see it happen, and certainly THE first country in modern history to make such a thing possible. The US is the BIRTHPLACE of the rags to riches story.
But then I celebrate the accomplishments of other people, I don't hate on them for having more, accomplishing more, being more disciplined, persistent, ambitious, driven, or more talented, than I. I feel envy is one of the most destructive forces in the world and I will have no part of it. But, we shall put that aside for now...
The "poor" I had in mind are PERFECTLY represented by the fantastic excerpt provided by Ornery from Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" (thank you Ornery, that was perfect!).
Too long! Too long. Now for the
life of me, I haven't been able to
figger this out. Either dem
Koreans are geniuses or we Blacks
are dumb.
This is truly a stupefying question and all three are silent.
What is the answer?
It's gotta be cuz we're Black. No
other explanation, nobody don't
want the Black man to be about sh*t
Rationalization becomes reality: 'Da Man don't want the black man (or poor man, as its frequently heard) to be about sh-t, so we'll give them what they want, we won't be about sh-t. We'll just sit here, drink ourselves a 40, smoke us a blunt, hate on those who work hard and refuse to accept anyone's expectation, whether actual or imagined, that they shouldn't be about sh-t, and try to git all we can from those suckers.'
I cannot count on my fingers and toes all of the people I've known or overheard espousing some form of this mentality (attitude). It's rampant among the lower classes, that's why many belong to the lower classes, and will stay there.
The excerpt is a work of irony, for Koreans are neither geniuses nor blacks dumb. The difference was attitude, which was NOT lost on the characters. In fact, the true 'shame' being referred to by one of the characters was a bit of subtlely; the 'shame' was that when the Creator was handing out ambition and enterprise, He seemed to give an abundance to the Koreans while the characters weren't given any.
We've all heard some form of that joke: "Its a damned shame, when God was handing out brains...talent...yadda...I didn't know you could get in line again...he got in line twice...I was standing in the wrong line...yadda."
Where does attitude come from.
Attitude comes from a variety of influences. It is not just a matter of what attitude one learns to have, but also a matter of learning what attitude will get you no sympathy.
Certain attitudes are not sympathized with in some circles, and so at least you know which attitude(s) will NOT gain you any sympathizers among your circle of friends, neighbors, family, etc. and so there is a disincentive, or at least no incentive, to adopt such an attitude.
This brings me right back to the example of the attitude I mentioned above:
'Da Man don't want the black man (or poor man, as its frequently heard) to be about sh-t, so we'll give them what they want, we won't be about sh-t. We'll just sit here, drink ourselves a 40, smoke us a blunt, hate on those who work hard and refuse to accept anyone's expectation, whether actual or imagined, that they shouldn't be about sh-t, and try to git all we can from those suckers.'
If this is the predominant attitude in your circle of friends, neighbors, family, etc. that you've been indoctrinated into since birth, and all the politicians and "community leaders" (politicians) are appealing to this attitude, then you're probably going to adopt it.