There is also the fact that if you have generational wealth and connections through your family, your life is just a whole lot easier than if you don't. A lot of stuff that has totally fucked different members of my family over would be a complete non-issue to my boyfriend's family, simply due to the income disparity.

My sister couldn't afford to go to university despite being a straight A student, so she dropped out for 3 years. My bf's sister has her immediate and extended family covering $100k/y in tuition and living expenses per year while she's in university. There was never even a chance for my bf's sister to have that problem.

If people are less stressed and have more medical, educational and financial resources in life, they are more likely to succeed. Poorer people tend to have far fewer of these options (if they have them at all) than people who come from families with money.

You can't always get out of the poverty trap simply by trying to improve yourself. That's why it's called the poverty trap. You can increase your chances, but I don't think it's fair to act as if poor people have simply given up on their own lives and don't know how to act. People take the best options available to them, but that doesn't help if all of your options are terrible.

Edit: people in this thread are talking all about how wealthier people "emphasize learning and education" but seem to conveniently miss the fact that you can make straight As in high school and not afford college, or how you can technically go to school but you can't pay for your living expenses while you're there, so it's still not an option. Or you can need health care to be functional enough to go to school and make good grades, but if you're from a poorer family than that may not be available either. Or your siblings all need your help or they're going to get fucked too, or your parents are sick, or whatever else that your family might not have the financial resources to solve without you giving up on your dreams.

Talking about culture is a form of intentional ignorance if you're going to ignore how that culture forms in the first place, why it persists, and what is actually happening.