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When everything around is shit, even your schools, there isn't much hope to go around.

Ever been to the inner-city and seen the automobiles that the "poor" drive? They would put mine to shame.

Ever seen the clothes that the "poor" have? Name-brand clothes, hats, NFL apparel, you name it - makes my Levi's jeans that I bought at Wally World look like a pauper's rags.

What about the jewelry they wear? I seen all of it, and then some, because I grew up in Racine, WI, which is the Benton Harbor of Wisconsin, and gee - these people have tons of money, driving Cadillac Escalades with tinted windows and chrome rims with expensive stereo systems, yet they can't come up with money to pay their electric bill. I've always wondered that - they got a widescreen TV with an Xbox but they the "electric slide" - not paying the electric bill through the winter knowing that they'll get energy assistance and that it's illegal for power companies to turn off electricity in the winter here in WI.

Take your poor arguments and shove it!

"The lack of hope is to blame. When everything around is shit, even your schools, there isn't much hope to go around."

What a bunch of touchy-feely, psycho-babble nonsense. I really hope you are kidding. If that were really true, than none of the millions of immigrants who came to the U.S. in the early 1900's would have made it. And history tells us that isn't true. How much hope did they have living in dirty overcrowded conditions. No clothes, shoes, certainly no welfare; many didn't even know the language. The one thing they did have was pride. They wanted to make a life for themselves and their children at any cost. They valued their family. They would have been highly embarassed to not work....learn the language...or do well for their families. There are no values or ethics in the current generations of the welfare culture. One reason why there are very few Asians among welfare recipients is their cultural values.

The fact is it takes a super hero to come out of the ghetto without by not conforming to the sub-culture.

I am not diminishing the accomplishments of those that did, but that is simply not true. (BTW my grandparents lived & died in the "ghetto", I spent a lot of time each week in spanish harlem. It was every disgusting thing that you think of including vermin, roaches, urine in the halls, junkies on the street and the pervading sweet smell of decaying garbage in the vestibule.)

I will grant you that if your parents are firmly set in the ghetto mentality, it is hard to see another way. But simply exposure to alternatives opens doors. Now that may mean things as simple as a job at McDonald's or outside the neighborhood, church programs, a magnet school that mixes kids from different backgrounds, scouting programs, military service, a couple of smart friends, etc.

I work at a college that has traditionally catered to 1st generation college students (as I was). We have students from some of the worst neighborhoods & schools in NYC, many in mentoring programs to help retention rates. Many are receiving HUGE amounts of financial aid. There is MUCH MORE help available now than there was before. College was not even a dream for poor families, like my father's in the bowery (lower east side Italian ghetto) or my mother's in spanish harlem.

A much higher percentage of young people attend college than 40 years ago, PARTICULARLY minority students. I'm pretty sure you would agree that education is the fastest ticket out of poverty. In fact I've read that it is the MOST relavant factor in studies of income disparity. More of a factor than family income background, race, sex and immigration status or geography (rural/urban).

There is much more opportunity to get out of poverty now. You don't have to be a super-hero. But I will agree that those that have isolated themselves and their families, particularly through substance abuse, ARE firmly entrenched. If the opportunities are there, and you turn your back and refuse to make the effort for either yourself or your kids, who is to blame?