It just goes to show that wealth, and poverty, are states of mind.
Which is why the Communists knew the only way they could keep their power was to kill the rich, once they gained power.
Do a thought experiment. Transport 10,000 residents of Harlem, picked at random, to a remote island in the Pacific and leave them there, with the means to survive for about a year and allow them to take about 100 pound of personal effects, but they will be isolated from the outside world. Pick another 10,000 from North Dakota and place them on a similar but separate island.
Come back in a generation, 25 years, and note the demographics and economy. On one island, most of the original settlers will have died off, the population will be distributed towards the young, with lots of children, few of whom survive into adulthood. Literacy among the young will be non-existant, healthcare not even rudimentary, religion reduced to superstition, government will be run by one or more competing strongman tryrants.
On the other, population will be stable, schools, a clinic, elections and governance will have been established. At least two religious communities will exist in harmony, Catholics and Protestants. Religion will be smoothly integrated into education with few objections.
Sadly, America is progressing from the second island to the first.
“It just goes to show that wealth, and poverty, are states of mind.”
To paraphrase the great Dave Ramsey, “being broke is a temporary monetary scenario, while being poor is a state of mind.” Poor people will stay poor because they will continue to behave like poor people. Broke people will eventually move up the economic ladder because they will behave differently.